What is an oral history?

What will be an ideal response?

An oral history is the first kind of history. Originally, it was the cultural history tradition in which one oral historian passed the information to an apprentice oral historian, and so on. In recent times, oral histories are oral evidence that can be used to analyze people, situations, and events as history progresses, or when using documentary versions of oral histories to bring to light the events and social contours of the past for contemporary consideration and analysis. Official histories only capture the perspective presented in official documentation, or the perspective of leaders and elites. Oral histories are one way to capture the perspective of the people, and maintain details of day-to-day circumstances. They are part of a link to living memory. This research strategy requires locating a population of individuals who possess firsthand information on the subject area the researcher is investigating. Contemporary oral history archives can be accessed online with written transcripts.