HIST 420: Voices of Protest

The Veterans History Project (VHP) honors American war veterans and civilian workers who supported them by preserving stories of their service to our country. VHP relies on volunteers throughout the nation to collect veterans’ stories on behalf of the Library of Congress. This Field Kit outlines five steps for participating in the Veterans History Project.

This publication reflects the Army's long-term experience with oral history, particularly the prodigious work of Army historians to document Army history since 1989 in the words of participants. To create a document encompassing the surprisingly strong thoughts and emotions that oral history evokes among historians can be a perplexing challenge. The purpose of the guide is to provide a concise user-friendly handbook that can aid experienced hands and novice historians alike by offering general guidelines and methods that have proven effective. The focus of the guide throughout is on practical advice and suggestions that will enable the novice to get started with confidence and the experienced user to refine and improve his or her methods and practices.

The Oxford Handbook of Oral History brings together forty authors on five continents to address the evolution of oral history, the impact of digital technology, the most recent methodological and archival issues, and the application of oral history to both scholarly research and public presentations. The volume offers diverse perspectives on the current state of the field and its likely future developments. Some of its chapters survey large areas of oral history research and examine how they developed; others offer case studies that deal with specific projects, issues, and applications of oral history. From the Holocaust, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Falklands War in Argentina, the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe, to memories of September 11, 2001 and of Hurricane Katrina, the efforts of oral historians worldwide are examined and explained in this text.