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History Social History

Beyond Testimony and Trauma

Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence

edited by Steven High

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2015
Category
Social History, Human Rights, Violence in Society, Genocide & War Crimes
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774828932
    Publish Date
    Nov 2015
    List Price
    $34.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774828956
    Publish Date
    Mar 2015
    List Price
    $26.99
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774828925
    Publish Date
    Mar 2015
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

Survivors of terrible events are often portrayed as unsung heroes or tragic victims but rarely as complex human beings whose lives extend beyond the stories they have told. Beyond Testimony and Trauma considers other ways to engage with survivors and their accounts based on insights gained from long-term oral history projects in a variety of contexts, including factory closures, industrial injury, eugenics and forced sterilization, the Holocaust, genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia, Argentinian torture camps, the Yugoslav Wars, and Jewish emigration from the Maghreb.

 

The contributors, all innovators in the field of oral history, include Henry Greenspan who provides reflections from forty years of listening to Holocaust survivors as well as an insightful afterword. They demonstrate that – through deep listening, long-term relationship building, and collaborative research design – it is possible to move beyond the problematic aspects of “testimony” to shine light on the more nuanced lives of survivors of mass violence. In the process, they offer alternative approaches to the collection of oral history that will shake the foundations of current historiographical practice.

About the author

Steven High is a professor of history at Concordia University in Montreal where he co-founded the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He has authored a number of books and articles on structural and mass violence as well as deindustrialization as a political, socio-economic, and cultural process. He is currently the head of the transnational “Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time” (DEPOT) research project which brings together researchers, museum professionals, archivists, and trade unionists across Europe and North America.

Steven High's profile page