Oral History: Scope and Significance

Abstract

The concept of oral history is not a new one. It is as old as history itself. Even when the human beings did not know the alphabets, the elders of the family used to narrate the achievements of their ancestors to the younger ones. In this way, the historical events
and memories were passed on from one generation to the next. We find a number of oral traditions in the historical works of
Herodotus and Thucydides, the Greek historians of fifth century B.C. Several Greek and Roman historians who came after
Thucydides used written as well as oral traditions for historiography. In medieval Europe, historians had a vast
collection of oral traditions.