Oral History in the Eyes of Two Americans

This week’s readings delve into the importance of oral history as historical evidence and to collective memory. In Studs Terkel’s Touch and Go, he describes oral history as more of a colloquial medium of collecting historical evidence. Throughout his own life experiences and interviews, Terkel expresses the importance of empathy in capturing a truly emotional, yet integral part of historical narrative. In Michael Frisch’s A Shared Authority, oral history is more of a procedural, systematic practice that is riddled with questions. Who is speaking? What is he/she talking about? Who has the authority in writing history? While Terkel's writing may be more captivating and easier to grasp than Frisch's, both are important in spelling out the importance of oral history in narrating the American historical narrative.

According to Terkel, oral history is more than just drilling someone with questions off a questionnaire; it is also more than just being an expert at using recording equipment. Instead, oral history is the art of need, naturalness, and true appreciation. Whenever Terkel interviewed someone, he made sure the interviewee felt needed. Terkel, historians, and the community needed the memory of the past recorded and preserved. Oral history, according to Terkel, was also meant to be a natural conversation rather than a scripted, almost robotic procedure. One of his secrets, Terkel explains, is “logorrhea” – the inability to stop talking. By engaging in informal conversation, not only does the interviewee tend to open up more, but he also understands the need of his story to historical narrative. In the end, Terkel explains that the overall appreciation of the oral history is essential. Not only is the spoken history appreciated by the interviewer, but it should also be spread, understood, and incorporated into the memory of a nation. Unfortunately, Terkel explains, this appreciation by the public is absent in today’s American society. Instead of opening a book and taking more than a second to look at a newspaper, the American public has only absorbed what they deem satisfactory – pop-culture, bottom-line news, and sports updates. In the end, this has led to an American culture stripped of intelligence and the absence of a sense of decency. (233)

While Terkel successfully expressed the importance of oral history by relating it to his life experiences, Frisch takes a more research-based approach in A Shared Authority. Through various essays, Frisch takes a look at the seemingly complex nature of oral history and other aspects of public history. Some of the issues he discovers are how oral histories are conducted and how they should be conducted, how oral histories have been used by the media, how oral history has been influenced by certain events, and so forth. A lot of his findings are based out of an American Studies program he chairs at SUNY-Buffalo. Rather than being focused on the emotional, almost sentimental side of oral history like Terkel’s book displayed, Frisch takes on a more systematic, almost drone explanation of an otherwise interesting topic.

While I liked Terkel’s book more and Frisch’s book did little to capture my interest (let alone gave me a headache because the text was too close together!), both are important glimpses into what oral history really is. On the one hand, Terkel successfully transformed oral history by placing a potential face, feeling, and understanding to an interview. On the other hand, Frisch poses the reality and complexity of oral history and public history. Together, Touch and Go and A Shared Authority create a coherent description of oral history.