Author Statement
Valerie Raleigh Yow
I was trained like all traditional historians, mainly researching people who had passed on and events that took place long ago. We did not concern ourselves with such issues as personal relationships between interviewer and narrator, ethical and legal dilemmas, interviewing skills, and characteristics of human memory because we were seeking documents and artifacts. Now not only scholars but also many people seriously interested in contemporary history are pursuing oral history projects. We are confronting these issues. It seemed to me that I could share my experiences conducting oral history interviews (about 200) and maybe help somebody musing over the same questions I have.
Often problems arise that require considering the consequences of several strategies and then making a judgment. In this book, I don’t want to present myself as an absolute authority. I will admit sometimes that I cannot tell you exactly what to do but I explain how I arrived—in terms of my own values and experiences—at solutions. And because I really enjoy oral history interviewing, sometimes I invite the reader to play, too, like imagining I am Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. I guess this is a different kind of textbook.
