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For this paper, you will be engaging in a short oral history project involving data collection, analysis and presentation. Each student will choose a particular event between 1945 and 2005 that is particularly memorable. You must
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a) Define the event
b) Find individuals living during the period who remember the event
c) Determine what questions should be asked of those individuals about the event
d) Pool the data and questions about the event collected and present it in a short analytical report using outside sources.
You should interview no fewer than two people about the event, and you should attempt to have your subjects be as diverse as possible. I will leave the choice of subjects up to you.
Interviews need not be in person, and can be done over email, phone, etc. Follow-up interviews may be necessary to clarify certain points raised in the initial interview, and which come up during creation of the paper.
The questions need not be complex, but each interviewer must have a historical knowledge of the event such that they know how to talk about the event, they know how to listen to the subject concerning the event, and perhaps know how to respond with follow-up questions that may not be on the group’s prepared list of questions.
Older subjects are particularly preferred, i.e. grandparents, because their knowledge is more in danger of being lost.
Chosen event: JFK Assassination
There are several other events one can choose from but remember that smaller events might not be remembered by everyone. Choose big, resonant, important events. Almost everyone will remember the JFK assassination. Many will remember Watergate, but they will probably only remember scattered events from the scandal – so one should adjust their questioning accordingly. For example, an interviewer could ask, “What events do you remember from Watergate?” as one of the questions.
Your paper should consist of three main components. The first two need only be in list format. You should include in your report
1) a list of the prepared questions asked,
2) a list of those interviewed, and most importantly
3) a report analyzing the answers to these questions and any follow-up questions.
Your paper should also use outside sources (secondary sources are fine) to describe the event itself and to help analyze the particular perspective your subjects bring to the event. For instance, if you interview your mother about the Kennedy assassination, and she worked in an office at the time, you might want to find out how working women viewed Kennedy at the time. This can help shed light on your mother’s reaction, and on the reaction of middle-class working women in the 1960s in general. This is only one example among an infinite number of examples.
Most of all, have fun. Interviewing your elders and showing an interest in their personal history can be a very rewarding experience.
