Editor’s Introduction

Greetings Readers!

By now, it should be apparent that some changes have taken place at The Oral History Review. If you have noticed that our cover is no longer electric blue, but now forest green you are on the right track. The cover redesign is but one mark of our change from the University of California Press to Oxford University Press.

As our contract with the University of California Press was coming to a close, we sought bids from a variety of presses for our publishing home. Oxford University Press, ultimately, made us some interesting proposals that could not be foregone. For example, subscribers will soon be able to access back issues of the journal from its very inception. Moreover, Oxford University Press will provide readers with a greatly expanded electronic environment, including information about the journal, instructions for authors, registration for e-mail table-of-contents, helpful links, and on-line searching and reference linking. Subscribers will be able to access articles and review online several weeks in advance of the general public.

Of considerable interest in this evermore technical world, working with Oxford University Press will allow us the opportunity to provide access to the materials behind the articles printed: music, interviews, speeches, video, etc. Look for these enhancements in the issues to come as we learn the totality of Oxford’s capacities to engage and expand the oral history world.

This issue is in some ways rather a traditional issue of the Review as we have not fully grasped the entirety of the bells and whistles available to us. Mark Cave’s “Through Hell and High Water: New Orleans, August 29 –September 15, 2005, ” presents his work from the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while Michael Nutkiewicz’s study of pediatric pain via oral history has the potential to change the way youth in chronic pain are treated. Also included in this essay is R. Kenneth Kirby’s theoretical piece on “Phenomenology and the Problems of Oral History,” as well as Bethany Rogers ’ exploration of the National Teachers Corps.

Of special interest as the world prepares to acknowledge the sixteith anniversary of the founding of Israel is Sherna Berger Gluck’s pathbreaking examination of Palestinian oral history —“Oral History and al-Nakbah.”

Be certain to let us know what you like about the new format; we would love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!