Publishing oral history since 1969

ORAL HISTORY Journal

Oral History is the oldest and only independent journal publishing the work of oral historians in the UK and beyond. Since it was founded in 1969, it has remained consistently at the forefront of oral history debates.

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Online Articles

Find out more about our new supplement to the printed journal, featuring online multimedia articles!

Coronation Party, 2023. Photo:Adam Rowley

Beyond the Archive: Oral History and Social Change

John Gabriel, Gulser Rose Kaya, Alya Khan 24 April 2026

Featured image: Coronation Party, 2023. Photo: Adam Rowley For a further discussion of the project and the issues raised in this post please see ‘Intersecting Lives: class community and change on the Andover estate’ Oral History

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Download highlights from 50 years of the Journal for free!

Online Reviews

The reviews section of Oral History has moved online as an open access supplement to the printed Journal. 

A journal that pushes boundaries

Founded by Paul Thompson and colleagues in 1969, Oral History has published articles by leading oral historians to push boundaries and open up new areas of debate. It has looked at issues such as memory and public history, inter-generational understanding and cultural transmission, trauma, gender, race and ethnicity, inter/subjectivity, conflict and reconciliation. By joining the Oral History Society, you will receive two copies of the journal a year and have complete online access to past issues. 

Each issue manages to run something to make me rethink an assumption, reconsider a practice or confront a new issue. Congratulations on fifty years of publication and many more!’ 
Don Ritchie
Don Ritchie Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate
The journal has been a force for good and has influenced scholars across disciplines over the decades.
Harry Goulbourne
Harry GoulbourneProfessor Emeritus South Bank University, London
The journal gives us a really valuable sense of connection to a wider comunity of oral historians. Sending in our update is a nice opportunity to reflect on what we've been busy doing and reading everyone else's news helps us know what else is going on.
Rosa Schling and Laura Mitchinson
Rosa Schling and Laura Mitchinson Joint managing directors of On the Record, London
‘For fifty years – a half century! – Oral History has both presented work in oral history from around the world and deepened our thinking about that work. I have especially appreciated the theme issues, which, like oral history itself, give multiple perspectives on the topic at hand.'
Linda Shopes
Linda ShopesPast President, US Oral History Association, Consultant in oral and public history 
Oral history and Oral History must have been doing something right ... to last these first 50 years, overcoming academic skepticism, poverty of means, and our own shortcomings. In fact, “what am I doing right” is a question I often ask, implicitly or explicitly, when I am surprised that people will spend hours talking to us about their lives.
Sandro Portelli
Sandro PortelliProfessor of Anglo-American literature University of Rome La Sapienza
Although Finnish archives have been collecting oral tradition and oral history for over a century, in Finland oral history research was introduced only in the 1980s and became an acceptable approach in academia in the 1990s. This would not have happened without the Oral History Journal, which has been a great source of inspiration for several generations of Finnish oral historians.
Anne Heimo
Anne HeimoUniversity of Turku, Finnish Oral History Network
Oral history brings together people from different fields (academic, professional, community), different disciplines (history, anthropology, media, gerontology etc) and different countries. Creating a journal that draws upon and speaks to such a diverse audience is never easy, but the British Oral History Journal does it better than anyone.
Al Thomson
Al ThomsonProfessor of History Monash University, Australia
I have a complete run of the Oral History Journal from the beginning of the 1990s to the present day. I'm usually bound up in my own style of interviewing, so it has always been invaluable to read about how others use oral history. I particularly love the “Current British Work” section as it continues to reflect people's passion to explore our living memory. Also a big heads up for such a well designed publication!
Alan Dein
Alan DeinRadio Broadcaster
Oral History is like a flowing river of voices - sustaining what so many of us do across the globe. This journal has presented many diverse views and brought together powerful currents that have changed the way in which we think about our practice as oral historians.
Indira Chowdhury
Indira ChowdhuryFounder-Director of the Centre for Public History, Bengaluru, India
Strike a Light - Arts & Heritage is pleased to have developed a relationship with this inspiring journal over the years. We love being part of a national network through your activities and feeling involved in a community of oral historians
Nicola Benge
Nicola BengeStrike a Light Arts & Heritage

Interested in contributing?

The editorial group welcomes submissions from a wide range of disciplines where the significance of oral history, orality, personal testimony and remembering is understood, valued and debated. This includes academics from the humanities and social sciences, archivists, social workers, journalists working in print and new media, health and community workers, educationalists, librarians, photographers, visual artists and museum curators. The journal’s editorial policy is to sustain a lively and critical understanding of the importance of oral history for the past, present and the future.

If you have an article that you would like to contribute, please read our guidance for authors .

Tell us about your project

Each issue of the journal includes news about oral history projects currently taking place within the UK and internationally. We would very much like to hear about your project.

News about current British oral history projects is featured in the journal. To submit content to the Current British Work section, please send your story in Word format (up to 1,000 words an item) with full contact details to Camille Johnson at [email protected]. Include illustrations if possible (preferably in high resolution jpegs.) 

News about International Work is co-edited by Emma Jillings and Verusca Calabria who welcome all contributions and queries to: [email protected] and [email protected]

Guidance for submitting articles

Click Here

Please send news of oral history projects in the UK to [email protected]

News of international projects should be sent to [email protected] or [email protected]

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Advertising

Would you like to advertise in Oral History and reach a large and diverse readership? Find out about our competitive rates.

For enquiries about advertising contact Liz Ison: [email protected]

Archive

Back issues of the journal, going back to 1972, are freely available and downloadable via JSTOR to individual and institutional members.

Reprint Permissions

We are happy to consider requests to reprint articles from Oral History in another publication.

Reviews

Publishers and would be reviewers of books as well as films, radio and television programmes, theatre and exhibitions should contact the reviews editors at [email protected]

Oral History and Open Access

The publication policy of Oral History Journal complies with the current requirements of UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) research funding frameworks in UK HE institutions to provide open access through the Green Open Accessroute. This framework echoes other open access frameworks across Europe. The journal allows authors to deposit their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in their institutional repository (only) with a CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) license for immediate access with zero embargo. Post-publication authors also receive, for their personal use only, a PDF of the final copy-edited and fully designed published version of their article (including any images and artwork) as it appears in the printed journal and online via JSTOR. This policy enables Oral History to support open access for academic authors, meeting UKRI and similar requirements, whilst protecting and sustaining our independence as a publisher.

Updated January 2026

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