oral history

noun

1. information of historical or sociological importance obtained usually by tape-recorded interviews with persons whose experiences and memories are representative or whose lives have been of special significance.

2. a book, article, recording, or transcription of such information.

oral history

noun

1. the memories of living people about events or social conditions which they experienced in their earlier lives taped and preserved as historical evidence

Other Word Forms

• oral historian noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of oral history¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

The first decade of Paul McCartney’s second act is fully illuminated in “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run,” an oral history drawn from interviews with band and family members, as well as other interested parties, and edited by Ted Widmer.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“I just believe in service,” she said in an oral history interview with the Eastern Kentucky University Research Center for Special Collections & Archives.

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“I just turned to the person next to me,” she said in an oral history interview, “and I said: When I sing again, it’s going to be with that band.”

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“We were facing things that the average person would never even consider,” Basheer said in the “Storytelling Project” oral history.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

While McCartney was unquestionably the band’s reigning star, his bandmates’ contributions to Wings’ commanding success during the 1970s is amply demonstrated in McCartney and Widmer’s expansive oral history.

Read more on Salon