Elite Oral History Discourse

“Scholars and practitioners will welcome Eva McMahan’s work analyzing the oral history interview as a communicative event. The oral history interview is defined as a conversation with a person whose life experience is deemed memorable. The central focus in this unique book is how the communicative performances of interviewer and interviewee jointly influence the product of the interview—the oral text.”
—Communication Quarterly

“There is much that is commendable about Elite Oral History Discourse. Through a thought-provoking dissection of the oral history interview, the book reveals a great deal of the structure and underlying dynamics of that rewarding, but occasionally frustrating, exercise in documenting the past. It is a convincing contribution to a growing body of work on the context and meaning of communication in oral history, and it should have a positive effect on the interviewing styles of those who read it.”
—Indiana Magazine of History

 

“Noteworthy for its focus on the problem of how a personal, lived-through experience is collaboratively transformed into a public, historical record. This study exemplifies the kind of detailed work that needs to be done if communication scholars are to achieve any real insight into how the procedures or everyday talk enable people to create social realities.”
—Scott Jacobs, University of Oklahoma

“McMahan does a fine job of exploring for oral history the implications of both hermeneutic philosophy and communications/discourse theory. Moreover, McMahan demonstrates powerfully that the issues engaged in such theories and research are not merely relevant, but inescapably fundamental to the root documents and processes of oral history. A fascinating book.”
—Michael Frisch, SUNY-Buffalo, Editor, The Oral History Review