Oral History Books - Page 3

Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times

Studs Terkel

List Price: $25.95 By: New Press Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $1.20

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The renowned oral historian turns his attention to the aspirations of "the American century."

I feel there's gonna be a change, but we're the ones gonna do it, not the government. With us there's a saying, "La esperenza muera ultima. Hope dies last." You can't lose hope. If you lose hope, you lose everything.—Jessie de la Cruz, retired farm worker

Studs Terkel's marvelous oral histories have hitherto dealt with specifics, as he puts it "the visceral stuff — the job, race, age and death." While Terkel's chosen theme here, the incandescence of hope, might at first appear elusive, it is anything but abstract. For Terkel, hope is born of activism, commitment, and the steely determination to resist.

The spirit of activism has ebbed and flooded through Terkel's venerable life. In the Great Depression of the 1930s he recalls a man swinging from a chandelier at the Astor Hotel shouting for "Social Security!" In the 1960s it was African Americans and students who advocated for equal rights and an end to maladventure overseas. And now, in a new century, young and old are joining forces on the streets to say no to war. The spark of activism is igniting the precious idea of a better world once again.

The interviews in Hope Dies Last constitute an alternative history of the "American century," forming a legacy of the indefatigable spirit that Studs has always embodied, and an inheritance for those who, by taking a stand, are making concrete the dreams of today.

Rue Ordener, Rue Labat (Stages)

Sarah Kofman

Amazon Price: $40.00 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 3 to 5 weeks By: University of Nebraska Press Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $20.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Rue Ordener, Rue Labat is a moving memoir by the distinguished French philosopher Sarah Kofman. It opens with the horrifying moment in July 1942 when the author’s father, the rabbi of a small synagogue, was dragged by police from the family home on Rue Ordener in Paris, then transported to Auschwitz—“the place,” writes Kofman, “where no eternal rest would or could ever be granted.” It ends in the mid-1950s, when Kofman enrolled at the Sorbonne.

The book is as eloquent as it is forthright. Kofman recalls her father and family in the years before the war, then turns to the terrors and confusions of her own childhood in Paris during the German occupation. Not long after her father’s disappearance, Kofman and her mother took refuge in the apartment of a Christian woman on Rue Labat, where they remained until the Liberation. This bold woman, whom Kofman called Mémé, undoubtedly saved the young girl and her mother from the death camps. But Kofman’s close attachment to Mémé also resulted in a rupture between mother and child that was never to be fully healed.



This slender volume is distinguished by the author’s clear prose, the carefully recounted horrors of her childhood, and the uncommon poise that came to her only with the passage of many years.

Playing for Time

Fania Fenelon, Marcelle Routier

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Syracuse University Press Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $4.14

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Playing for Time 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Playing for Time, a grade-A book by Fania Fenelon, is a document not only about the Holocaust, but one that goes deeper: it shows how music brought redemption of spirit in the Hell of Hells. When Fania and her friend are brought to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, she is recognized by a girl in the camp's orchestra as a Parisian caberet singer. She is accepted in to the orchestra, where she is forced to sing the opera Madame Butterfly for the SS. Fania does not let the hardships of the camp take over her spirit, though. She uses music as a weapon, and, as an orchestrator as well as singer for the group, she orchestrates marches by Jews and anti-Nazis right under the noses of her captors, who never catch on. Fania's love of music allows her to survive Auschwitz, and when she is sent with the rest of the "Orchestra Girls" to Bergen-Belsen near the end of the war, her passion for life pulls her through a severe case of typhus. One day she learns that the Nazis are going to shoot the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen at 3:00 that afternoon. The English arrive at the camp at 11:00 that same morning. Fania just barely survived the war, and afterwards she returned to Paris and started again as a caberet singer. She died of cancer in her hometown in 1983. Playing for Time teaches us many things. It teaches us that the human spirit cannot be killed. It teaches us that good always wins over evil. And it teaches us that if you have a love, stick to it. One day it might just save your life.

Editorial Review:

In 1943, Fania Fenelon was a Paris cabaret singer, a secret member of the Resistance, and a Jew. Captured by the Nazis, she was sent to Auschwitz where she became one of the legendary "orchestra girls" who used music to survive the Holocaust. Playing for Time is her personal account of that incredible experience. It is one of the most powerful -- and true -- stories of our time.

Writing History, Writing Trauma (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)

Dominick LaCapra

List Price: $39.95 By: The Johns Hopkins University Press Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $129.20

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Historiography
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Oral History
Subjects -> History -> Military -> World War II -> Personal Narratives

Editorial Review:

Trauma and its often symptomatic aftermath pose acute problems for historical representation and understanding. In Writing History, Writing Trauma, Dominick LaCapra provides a broad-ranging, critical inquiry into the problem of trauma, notably with respect to major historical events. In a series of interlocking essays, he explores theoretical and literary-critical attempts to come to terms with trauma as well as the crucial role post-traumatic testimonies--particularly Holocaust testimonies--have assumed in recent thought and writing. In doing so, he adapts psychoanalytic concepts to historical analysis and employs sociocultural and political critique to elucidate trauma and its after effects in culture and in people.

In the first chapter LaCapra addresses trauma from the perspective of history as a discipline. He then lays a theoretical groundwork for the book as a whole, exploring the concept of historical specificity and insisting on the difference between transhistorical and historical trauma. Subsequent chapters consider how Holocaust testimonies raise the problem of the role of affect and empathy in historical understanding, and respond to the debates surrounding Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's book Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. The book's concluding essay, "Writing (About) Trauma," examines the various ways that the voice of trauma emerges in written and oral accounts of historical events. Theoretically ambitious and historically informed, Writing History, Writing Trauma is an important contribution from one of today's foremost experts on trauma.

The Black Devil Brigade: The True Story of the First Special Service Force in World War II

Joseph A. Springer

List Price: $29.95 By: Motorbooks International Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $11.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> Canadian
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Regional Canada -> Maritime Provinces
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> Canada -> 20th Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellence Continued 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Springer may have been initially motivated by the desire to honor his uncle (killed serving with the First Special Service Force) but his work honors all who served in that unit. One seldom sees an oral history which tells the story of a unit so well. All the contributions by unit members tell the story without the distractions often found in other compilations. Always engaging, you just don't want to put the book down. Not only does one learn about the unit and individuals who made up that unit but one also learns about the equipment used, how it was acquired, and the soldiers' opinions of its performance. An amazing amount of information presented in a way that also entertains and honors the men who served.

Editorial Review:

They were the shock troops of the American Army. In their ranks were lumberjacks, miners, skiers-men from the United States and Canada who were accustomed to hardship and living on their own. Their training was extraordinary: forced marches of 100 miles in the Montana wilderness with 50-pound backpacks was typical. Weapons training was equally rigorous and the men became as dangerous with their hands and a knife as they were with rifle and machine gun.

In Italy they became the unit called to accomplish the impossible. At Monte Cassino, and at Anzio, they did, earning the respectful accolade from their German enemies: Schwartzer Teufel-Black Devils.

For the first time ever, the men of the First Special Service Force tell in their own words the full and complete story of their unit which is regarded as the parent of today's Green Berets.

Curating Oral Histories: From Interview to Archive

Nancy MacKay

Amazon Price: $22.45 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Left Coast Press Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $22.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Historiography
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Oral History
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Library & Information Science -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Nifty book packed with useful information 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Let me say from the outset that this is a great book. It is reasonably short, easy to read and packed with great information. The focus of the book is its title, "Curating Oral Histories." Those who are familiar with doing oral history know about getting the right recording equipment, setting up the interview and all that. What we don't know too much about is what to do with it all once it's done. What do you do with all those tapes? How do you catalog them? Perhaps the biggest issue is how to preserve the originals. At some point in time those tapes are going to deteriorate.

This book answers all the questions. I really liked the focus on cataloging and curating. This added an important dimension to the whole issue of what one does after the interviews have been done. From my own experience, I have conducted a couple of oral history interviews for my own personal research, and right now, the tapes are more or less sitting in a box. At some point I will transcribe them, but I still don't know what to do with the tapes. Should I make a backup copy? This book pretty much answers it.

Of particular note are the appendices. There are forms for a variety of purposes. The legal forms are useful for copyright releases which is very important. I really liked the collection policy form and the other practical forms for processing and organizing the oral histories. The appendices alone are worth the price of the book.

My overall impression of this book after reading it is that it is of reasonable length, easy to read, and packed with useful information. The author did a great job of explaining the meaning of certain terms used in oral history. Overall, I am quite pleased that I bought this book. It is a welcome addition to my personal library, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in oral history. It is particularly useful to librarians who need to catalog their collections and preserve the originals for future generations.

Editorial Review:

he interview is completed, the recorder packed away, and you've captured the narrator's voice for posterity. The bulk of your oral history is finished—or is it? Nancy MacKay, archivist and oral historian, addresses the crucial issue often overlooked by researchers: How do you ensure that the interview you so carefully recorded will be preserved and available in the future? MacKay goes carefully through the various steps that take place after the interview—transcribing, cataloging, preserving, archiving, and making your study accessible to others. Written in a practical, instructive style, MacKay guides readers, step by step, to make the oral history “archive ready”, offers planning strategies, and provides links to the most current information in this rapidly evolving field. This book will be of interest to oral historians, librarians, archivists and others who conduct oral history and maintain oral history materials. See more at http://www.nancymackay.net/curating/

Going Long: The Wild Ten-Year Saga of the Renegade American Football League in the Words of Those Who Lived It

Jeff Miller

List Price: $24.95 By: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $24.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Oral History
Subjects -> Sports -> Basketball -> Professional
Subjects -> Sports -> Basketball -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

EVERYBODY GO LONG !! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Of course, there are several books in circulation about the birth and growth of the American Football League (AFL), the greatest rival sports league in the history of American professional sports. What makes this book a little different from the pack is that it consists almost entirely of quotes from interviews with the various participants in AFL history -- players, coaches, owners, etc.

So in all candor, the author contributes little, and appears to have acted more like a stenographer than anything else. I suppose that can be both good and bad. But though I like this book a great deal, I'd say it's not as good as a similar book by Bob Curran entitled "The $400,000 Quarterback -- or -- The League that Came in from Out of the Cold."

But if you an AFL-lover, you'll love it. If you are just AFL-curious, you may want to shop around for other titles.

Editorial Review:

“Outlandish, informative, and above all, funny.”

—Sports Illustrated

Now in paperback, Going Long brings the incredible story of the maverick American Football League to life through the words of the players, coaches, owners, and others who lived it. This story of the AFL is filled with legendary names such as Bob Griese, Joe Namath, Lamar Hunt, Jack Kemp, Len Dawson, and more. From the contentious formation of the league, to paychecks bouncing as often as footballs, to improbable Super Bowl victories, Going Long presents the colorful and sometimes bizarre tale of eight teams and a league that refused to die.

Dine Bahane': The Navajo Creation Story

Paul G. Zolbrod

Amazon Price: $21.95 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of New Mexico Press Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $4.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Oral History
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

History - Past and Present 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 20 people found this review helpful.

There are several versions of the Navajo Creation Story known but Paul Zolbrod has captured the most plausible and accepted rendition in print. Most Navajos that I know accept this text as adequate and feel that the author's treatment of the subject matter is fair and sensitive to a very vital element of Dine' culture. Many Navajos, especially elders will say that the material printed in this book used to be reserved for the sweat hooghan and special times between family members but understand that now things have changed and accept the publication of very special and sensitive aspects of a great peoples' religion, as long as it is done under the auspices of the Navajo Nation. Perhaps in time others will publish material more to the needs of Navajo scholars but to this day this book is the literary standard of the creation stories.

Editorial Review:

This is the most complete version of the Navajo creation story to appear in English since Washington Matthews’ Navajo Legends of 1847. Zolbrod’s new translation renders the power and delicacy of the oral storytelling performance on the page through a poetic idiom appropriate to the Navajo oral tradition.

Zolbrod’s book offers the general reader a vivid introduction to Navajo culture. For students of literature this book proposes a new way of looking at our literary heritage.

Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust

Gay Block, Malka Drucker

List Price: $49.95 By: Holmes & Meier Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $7.08

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A beautiful photo-interview essay on altruism... 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 29 people found this review helpful.

This book is wonderfully formatted, arranged by geographic area of Europe. Each interview starts with black and white photos a person who helped Jews and other persecuted people during WWII. A personal narrative of that time in their lives follows, and each interview closes with a color photo of that person as they were in 1992 when the interviews were done. A complicated and moving picture of altruism emerges, and one gets a glimpse of how individuals chose to protect others at the risk of threat to themselves and their families.

Editorial Review:

A welcome addition to Holocaust literature, this work presents a series of 49 personal reminiscences of non-Jewish citizens in various European nations who risked their lives to hide resident Jews from the Nazi horror. Most of those interviewed felt their actions were done out of friendship and for people caught in a web of hatred and anti-Semitism. They did not feel that they were acting heroically but that they were doing what was right. Portraits by Block of each of the rescuers accompany the text. These 49 are representative of the 9,295 rescuers honoured at the Yad Vashem in Israel. This is recommended reading for general readers as well as for college and university libraries.

Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember

List Price: $27.50 By: Grove Pr Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $8.34

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Bad, The Sad, And The Extremely Ugly 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the real deal. Ex-slaves telling their own experiences; a few not-so-bad, many extremely heartbreaking. This is one of the best insights into what slavery was really like during the 19th Century. This is the story, in there own words, of how a people were totally dehumanized during America's most shameful period. A country claiming "liberty and justice for all" while denying that freedom to millions of fellow human beings. And many still ask the question, "why do African-Americans still lag behind in so many areas, while other ethnic groups had to struggle as immigrants also?" This book is a reminder that blacks were forcibly brought here, and denied-for-years even the simplest education. Maybe the reading of this book, will help some realize the continual uphill struggle, blacks have tried to achieve in a few short decades since the Civil Rights Movement. Trying to make-up for Centuries of bondage, and inequality. Just as we can never forget the evils of the Holocaust, so it should be equaly true with the era of slavery.

Editorial Review:

In the mid-thirities, the Federal Writer's Project, an adjunct of the W.P.A., dispatched interviewers to capture the personal memories of the last few thousand survivors of American slavery. In Bullwhip Days, they tell, in their own voices, of the harsh realities of human bondage. The vivid and powerful images are a vital part of America's history and offer sobering insight into the roots of racism in today's society.