Oral history uniquely allows for the historian to question and engage with their subject directly.īloch offers an instructive warning to the historian later in the work. Bloch refers to ‘cross-examination’ of sources as ‘the prime necessity of well-conducted historical research’ (p. Unlike other historical sources, oral interviews are a living creation, brought into existence with the assistance of the historian. Oral testimony is perhaps the perfect source material for comparative use, with each interview being the expression of an individuals personal reality. He emphasises that this comparison must be between ‘differing and, at the same time, related realities’ (p. Interviews can therefore act as a tool to address the widening generational gap identified by Bloch.īloch stresses the importance of comparison in the work of the historian, and that without it there is ‘no true understanding’ of the historical reality. Oral history interviews allow successive generations to write themselves into history, on their own terms, accounting for the wide range of subjective experiences of different generations. To those interviewed in my ongoing PhD project, travel was a new luxury which had previously only been available those who were forced to travel for work or as part of the armed forces. In an example from my research into the history of travel, the inaccessibility of other countries to those living just a few generations ago could seem inconcievable to young people today. The modern-day advancements of mass communication and globalisation equally alienate subsequent generations from those which went before.

Bloch argues that ‘successive technological revolutions,’ such as electricity and the aeroplane, have ‘immeasurably widened the psychological gap between generations’ (Bloch, Historians Craft, pp. This post will not attempt to summarise Bloch’s work, but will look at how oral history in particular can address some of the assertions laid out within it.

The Historian's Craft by Marc Bloch