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A Practical Guide to Oral History 

Review by Solaiman M. Fazel  

 

Practicing Oral History in Historical Organizations 

by Barbara W. Sommer 

Left Coast Press, 2015 

 

 

Barbara Sommer’s (2015) Practicing Oral History in Historical Organizations is a welcome addition to 

the field of qualitative research methodology. Generally the topics that public historians, ethnographers, 

and other practitioners of oral history probe are fragmented and lack human voice. Sommer’s book 

speaks to practitioners who “collect, archive, and use oral history” (p. 10). Since the second half of the 

twentieth century when oral history was established as a viable ‘bottom-up’ research method that can 

help foster social change, Sommer demonstrates how the field has grown to where it is now practiced 

by museum curators, librarians, scientists, cultural institutions, activists, and artists. At the same time, 

some practitioners may not have received any rigorous graduate level training on research methods, but 

want a practical guide on how to create the best records possible within the realm of their own 

professions. To fill this gap, Sommer’s book offers valuable tips and checklists. 

Sommer weaves together a mixed collection of data: seven first-person interviews, twelve historical 

organizations, fieldwork, and secondary sources. She discusses the Oral History Life Cycle in part 

three of her book. The individual chapters make effective use of pictures, graphs, outlines, samples, 

definitions, and forms to help the reader along. The twelve chapters are organized into four sections. 

Part one provides an overview of the theory and practice of oral theory. Part two examines the theory of 

oral history in-depth and tells of the special issues that can arise when oral history is practiced. Part 

three provides a roadmap for planning, implementing, disseminating, and preserving oral histories. The 

final part includes reflections and advices. Sommer’s book ends with a glossary, appendices, and list of 

further readings on different aspects of oral history.    



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Chapter two opens with an inclusive definition of oral history and ends with a ten step guide on how to 

best conduct oral history in a community (p. 30-1). For Sommer oral history is more than merely 

documenting and preserving data stored in memories. She cites Oral History Association’s definition 

that offers the following points. Oral historians “record spoken information gathered from people’s 

memories, collect first-person information deemed historically significant by those recording it, [and] 

preserve the recorded interview information and make it accessible to others” (p. 26). For Sommer oral 

history is no different than “primary source documents like letters or diaries” (p. 26). She claims it can 

be used in conjunction with surveys, family histories, journalistic interviews, books, folklore, and 

documentaries to reconstruct a more complete narrative of the past. This understanding of oral history 

overlaps with Ray DeMallie’s description of ethnohistory in which history is not only limited to written 

primary sources. Ethnohistory uses an eclectic array of sources that give its own particular sense of the 

past, which encompasses literature, traditions, places, memoirs, maps, artifacts, images, arts, and oral 

stories.  

 

Sommer’s chapter three discusses the five step process of Oral History Life Cycle. It includes: “idea, 

plan, interview, preservation, and access/use” (p. 33). For Sommer oral history projects are generally 

inspired by ideas, events, shared experiences, or disappearing histories and cultures. Step two is the 

Project Design Statement. It is a detailed and flexible roadmap that guides the end-to-end process. It 

entails having the proper fieldwork equipment(s) and a depository where the recordings are carefully 

kept. Step three is the interview part, which is considered the central stage in the Oral History Life 

Cycle. Chapter ten covers the science and art of interviewing in detail. Step four is preservation that 

includes classification and organization of the fieldwork data. Preservation “moves the lifecycle from 

creation to curation” (p.36). Step five is when the oral histories are placed in a depository that makes is 

accessible to public for additional research, museum exhibitions, publications, documentaries, and 

other educational programs.  

 

Part two covers the copyright laws, ethical guidelines, and legal release agreements. The final part of 

the book ends with reflections. Sommer concludes by stating “oral histories provide an opportunity for 

historical organization to bring people into the action” (p. 162). This statement reminded me of Eric 

Wolf’s influential anthropology book, Europe and the People without History. Although Sommer’s 

book is written for practitioners of oral history, it remains to be seen if oral history can become a bigger 



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component of the research methodology courses that are taught in academia. 

 

References Cited 

DeMallie, Raymond J. “These Have No Ears”: Narrative and the Ethnohistorical Method.” in 

Ethnohistory 40 (4) (1993): 515-538. 

 

Wolf, Eric R. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. 

 

Solaiman M. Fazel is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology with an outside minor in 

the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University. His research interest includes 

Globalization, Minorities and the State, the modern Middle East and Central Asia, and ethnohistory. 

Solaiman is a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at 

Indiana University South Bend, where he teaches Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology; 

Globalization, Development, Conflict; and Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East. 

 

 

© 2017 Solaiman M. Fazel  


