Oral History; Science or Method
Hamid Qazvini
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan
2023-7-21
Science is considered as a systematic effort aimed at achieving analyzable and measurable results, and history as the science of reviewing the past events.
Now the question is whether oral history, which has a deep relationship with history, is a science or a research method under the science of history!
To get the answer, it is better to take a look at the background of oral history. Oral history is one of the new research achievements in history, which describes and identifies past events based on the views, hearings and actions of witnesses and related people.
It seems that this field, which was put on the agenda of researchers in the years after World War II, was based on the need for Western societies after important experiences in the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century that saw the popular historiography insufficient or ineffective to record some of them, and evaluated the transmission of many information and experiences to the next generations with disorder. Thus, they thought of a new idea that could bring a more complete picture to the field of historiography and in this way, oral history entered historical research with the help of the development of mass communication devices and audio and video recording technology, targeted interviews based on observations and information of individuals.
Thus, oral history interviews were, in the first step, a research method using interviews to collect statements and neglected points in written history, and it was recognized as a source along with other sources, and gradually with the expansion of the range of topics and the increase in the number of oral history activists, independent works of oral history opened its place among other historical sources.
Since then, oral history has received attention in the research circles of the world and has been recognized as a contemporary history research method in many centers.
"Oral history is a decisive method in increasing people's understanding of contemporary events and understanding the nature and meaning of time and the nature of the functions and structures of history."[1]
In fact, oral history is a type of qualitative research and has been spread in scientific and historical research circles with its interdisciplinary nature.
Oral history uses scientific methods to obtain information and does not limit itself to one discipline and is not a sub-discipline of history, such as political, economic or social history.
In other words, oral history is a multi-faceted and advanced combination that has been able to be used by ordinary people and researchers due to the scope of work, while providing primary scientific resources through audio and video interviews to obtain new information and multilateral communication with other scientific fields.[2]
[1] Hossein Ali Nozari, 1383 (2002), “Oral History, Experimental Applications, Reliability and Research Applications, Iranian Contemporary History Quarterly, issue no. 29, p. 352.
[2] Hassanabadi, Abolfazl, 1386 (2005), Oral history and Historiography in Historical Texts (based on the book of Tarikh-i Bayhaqi), the Month Book of History and Geography, pp. 8-16
Number of Visits: 2209








The latest
- Prerequisites for entering the history of thought
- Khizr
- Commander of the 42nd Combat Engineer Division
- Ayatollah Salehi Najafabadi narrates exile to Mahabad
- The Embankment Wounded Shoulders – 3
- Escaping the military to influence other military personnel
- An Excerpt from the Memoirs of Commander Mohammad Jafar Asadi
- A Review of the Book “Brothers of the Castle of the Forgetful”: Memoirs of Taher Asadollahi
Most visited
- The Embankment Wounded Shoulders – 2
- An Excerpt from the Memoirs of Commander Mohammad Jafar Asadi
- A Review of the Book “Brothers of the Castle of the Forgetful”: Memoirs of Taher Asadollahi
- Escaping the military to influence other military personnel
- The Embankment Wounded Shoulders – 3
- Ayatollah Salehi Najafabadi narrates exile to Mahabad
- Commander of the 42nd Combat Engineer Division
- Khizr
An Excerpt from the Memoirs of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi
As Operation Fath-ol-Mobin came to an end, the commanders gathered at the “Montazeran-e Shahadat” Base, thrilled by a huge and, to some extent, astonishing victory achieved in such a short time. They were already bracing themselves for the next battle. It is no exaggeration to say that this operation solidified an unprecedented friendship between the Army and IRGC commanders.A Selection from the Memoirs of Haj Hossein Yekta
The scorching cold breeze of the midnight made its way under my wet clothes and I shivered. The artillery fire did not stop. Ali Donyadideh and Hassan Moghimi were in front. The rest were behind us. So ruthlessly that it was as if we were on our own soil. Before we had even settled in at the three-way intersection of the Faw-Basra-Umm al-Qasr road, an Iraqi jeep appeared in front of us.Boycotting within prison
Here I remember something that breaks the continuity, and I have to say it because I may forget it later. In Evin Prison, due to the special position that we and our brothers held and our belief in following the line of Marja’eiyat [sources of emulation] and the Imam, we had many differences with the Mujahedin.The credibility of the commanders
According to the Iranian Oral History website, the “Conclusion of the Fourth National Conference on the Oral History of the Sacred Defense and Resistance” was held on Saturday morning, March 24, 2025, in the presence of oral history activists, in the Qalam Hall of the ...
