ABSTRACT

In their contemporary formulation, the techniques of oral debriefing were first explored in the US in the 1940s in New Deal projects to preserve the reminiscences of former slaves and unlettered rural folk, and then were used in Europe. In 1977 the US Army Corps of Engineers expanded the range of army oral history activities by establishing an active biographical and subject interview programme. In the late 1980s the Center of Military History went even further by creating an Oral History Activity to coordinate issues concerning all the army's oral history programmes. 'Oral history, the systematic collection of historically important recollections through the use of recorded interviews, provides a useful methodology to tap this resource.' In the event that companies elect to undertake oral debriefings in group situations, it should be borne in mind that copyright can also be jointly owned.