Voci della memoria. L’uso delle fonti orali nella ricerca storica by Bruno Bonomo (review)

Voci della memoria is an Italian-language theoretical, historical, and methodological introduction to oral history research. Written mostly for students and early career researchers who want to create and use oral history sources in their research, the book offers a concise overview of the history and theoretical implications of oral history, on the one hand, and the practical and methodological side of oral history research, on the other. Accordingly, the book is structured along three lines of discussion that explore the theory, history, and methodology of oral history, which are summarized in the title of the book: Voci della memoria. L’uso delle fonti orali nella ricera storica [Voices of Memory. The Use of Oral Sources in Historical Research]. It concludes with a reading guide that provides examples of historical research in which oral sources have been important in the reconstruction of the past.

The book begins with “Oral Sources and Oral History,” in which Bruno Bonomo discusses some preliminary matters about terminology and the definition of oral sources, their relation to memory and history, and the interdisciplinary character of oral history. Bonomo thus sheds light on what exactly we should consider oral sources, what their specific characteristics—as opposed to written sources—are, and how they have been used by historians throughout the decades; he then discusses the position oral history holds within the growing field of memory studies. In doing so, he highlights the important role of oral testimonies in contemporary society, a fact reflected in an increasing emphasis on the figure of the witness. The second chapter, “A Brief History of Oral History,” describes the various milestones in the establishment of a broadly accepted discipline of oral history in Europe and North America, although Bonomo also includes material about other geographical areas, such as Latin America. He accompanies this chapter with brief explorations and stories of some of the key texts and figures in oral history theory over time, all placed within a historical and cultural context that helps explain certain developments such as the “revival of narrative” that contributed to the boom of oral history in the late 1970s and 1980s, which Bonomo connects to the linguistic turn and the crisis of “grand narratives” in those years.

In chapter 3, “Writing History with Oral Sources,” the book adopts a more practical tone, as Bonomo takes us through the various stages of oral history interviewing, beginning with the question of how oral sources can be of use and then providing a few examples of the ways in which oral history has been used in historical research. Next he discusses the oral history interview itself, combining theoretical reflections about intersubjectivity, for example, with practical advice directed more toward absolute beginners (including a sample consent form in the appendix). This results in occasionally redundant information for more advanced scholars and oral historians, as does his review of recording practices, transcription, interpretation of oral sources, and research outputs. Nevertheless, references to existing research, brief theoretical excursuses, and examples make the section pleasant to read and interesting overall.

The final chapter, “Research Themes: A Reading Guide,” is the most interesting and innovative part of this introduction to oral history: it offers a review of some of the exemplary works of historical research that use oral history sources. Bonomo has selected these according to four areas of research: daily life and private issues; wars; social movements; and urban history. Bonomo thus explores the challenges of performing oral history research on communities whose daily life experiences were affected by dictatorial governments, as in the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy. Here, though, I sensed a gap in research on private issues such as sexuality, motherhood, and child-raising; it is a pity that Bonomo did not include references to, say, the work of Angela Davis, author of a recent book on modern motherhood in Great Britain...