In Michael Frisch’s introduction to A Shared Authority, the author argues that historians need to understand the authorship of oral histories, and if these oral histories are in fact real history (Frisch xx). The idea that we need to really understand whether the histories that we record are in fact true, is an interesting thought for our class as we continue with our oral history project for the semester. Oral history can be thought of in a very general and broad sense as recording another person’s memory of a particular historical event, or person, but it also needs the historian who is collecting these histories to perform some form of research to support the recordings. While this seems pretty straight forward, the collecting of history and essential collecting background information to support it, there are some issues that can be met when a project like this is completed.
     In Leon Fink’s article When Community Comes Home to Roost : The Southern Milltown as Lost Cause reflects on some of the issues faced when history is completely controlled by a group intent on interpreting the local history for their own gains. Fink’s article focuses on his experiences with the Cooleemee Historical Association (CHA), and their community history and heritage projects (Fink 125). One of the main issues that I saw, was the ability of the group was its ability to silence certain aspects of their town’s history that could be deemed as unpleasant or unflattering. For instance Fink states that what was most disturbing about the historical interpretations of the CHA “was the bending and shaping of discreet memories to fit a tidy, group portrait,” (Fink 125). Thus showing that the true history of the town, and the memories of those who lived in it were being shaped to create a new history that did not involve anything outside of the happy, hard working history of mill workers. I understand that with town history projects there is a strive to show the best parts of a town’s history, but to completely change and distort the historical truth can create more bad than good. By ignoring certain aspects of a town’s history in hopes of creating a story that can sell to visitors, the majority within the community can allow for the quieting or ignoring of certain minority groups or important historical events. There is also a chance that those leading these community revitalization projects are pushing their own agenda’s that can adversely affect those within the community. Fink saw this with the involvement of Lynn and Jim Rumley, who not became top members of the CHA, but also became very active members within local government through this organization (120).
    What both Fisch and Fink have given us is a better understanding of what issues historians can face when becoming part of public history projects that reflect upon a close knit community’s history. As we continue with out project we have to be mindful of not only the political issues that surround the community and its members, as well as who’s history it is that we are recording.

Citations

Fink, Leon. "When Community Comes Home to Roost: The Southern Milltown as a Lost Cause" Journal of Social History (Autumn 2009)

Frisch, Michael, A Shared Authority, (1990 State University of New York Press, Albany)