Have you ever told a story or experience to others before? Sources of history can be categorized into three types, which are primary, secondary and tertiary sources. Historians can use different techniques to collect different sources. This book, “What is oral history?”, provides a general idea of the nature and interview techniques to readers.

Oral history is one of the techniques, which historians use to obtain information from the people. What makes oral history different from other sources is that oral history is subjective and related to personal experience. However, due to this special nature, oral history may not be as reliable as other sources. But, oral history can reflect the emotions of the interviewees whereas other sources cannot.

This book also introduces different oral history projects, such as the Federal Writers’ Project and Oral History Project. Moreover, this book also introduces different interview techniques which enable students to conduct interviews with interviewees successfully.