University of Alabama Press, 1993

For several decades historians have disputed the value of calling tape-recorded oral interviews “history.” No one doubts the usefulness of personal reminiscence when used as one of many sources. But as freestanding accounts of past events, oral memory claims remain dubious for many historians. Despite such skepticism, few question the value of oral histories, with ordinary people as a way of providing a perspective on the past by people who are ordinarily ignored. Flawed though such memories may be by passing time and personal ego, they afford many ordinary people their only authentic voice.