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The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah: an Exercise in Oral History

By use of oral history techniques, about fifty persons, in eleven occupations, who had lived in Weber County du1ing the Great Depression, who were interviewed concerning their life experiences during the depression. Tape recordings were made and transcriptions were taken from the tapes. These transcripts were presented to each person interviewed for approval. A signed statement granting permission to place transcripts in the Library at Utah State University and The Utah Historical Society was secured from each interviewee .
From this study it became evident: 1. The memory of 1nan is not always accurate in detail information, yet has great capacity in the general area. 2. Several persons must be interviewed before a reliable conclusion can be drawn concerning an event. 3. People enjoy talking about past events in which they participated. 4. Preservation of the tape is vital in that it conveys much more than one can hope to be preserved in the written transcript; his vocal tone and change in the intensity with which he speaks reveal his special convictions and his biases. 5. The memory of past events, a most valuable historical resource , is being lost at a rapid rate through death and advanced age.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-3225
Date01 May 1973
CreatorsTaft, Mack S.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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