De kracht van oral history

Interviews met vier leden van het Apolistisch Genootschap

Samenvatting

Oral history is based on spoken, first-hand accounts that are inherently subjective. Therefore, it is often seen as less reliable than more standard historical sources. However, this subjective character is also the source of its power: when we try to understand how events have been experienced by people, their own personal narratives complement the written sources (which often ignore personal experiences). They shed light on what is remembered and why, and by doing so, tell us something about the complexity of history and memory. This article seeks to explain how oral history is an important addition to official historical sources by drawing on data generated during my PhD research. In this piece, I try to understand how historical changes within a religious movement in the Netherlands – the
Apostolic Society (ApGen) – has been experienced by its members, and how this can change our perspective on the past. I seek to show this by conducting oral history interviews with members of the movement.