Conversations with America

My individual project centered on the ‘Grand Rapids Home for Veterans,’ where I have created a proposal to have an oral interview project conducted, focusing on the Vietnam War. I have been researching how to conduct historical interviews and was directed to Studs Terkel. Most of the veterans that sit down to have an interview with Studs Terkel find it a great experience even though they may have to relive painful and terrifying experiences that occurred during the war. Studs Terkel interviews ordinary American officers whose stories are going untold. He has a unique way of interviewing as he just lets the veterans talk but guides them through the interview. He uses phrases like: “Can you tell me about…” and “You were telling me about…” as well as “What happened next?” Studs Terkel asks the veterans questions when he would like them to go in more details on a certain topic. He asks them to verify date, events and groups but mainly listens to the interviewee.

I feel that this is very important when conducting an interview. Interviewees need to be the dominate speakers and should not be persuaded to talk about things they don’t want to or have little knowledge of. The questions should be relevant and personal to each veteran since each person had a different experience. The only thing that I would suggest for Studs Terkel’s interviews would be to place the auto recorder so that we can hear him (the interviewer) as well. At times it hard to hear what he is asking the veteran and therefore it takes a few seconds to realize what the veteran is talking about. Other than that I feel that Terkel’s interviews were conducted in such a way that viable information was collected and the interviewee was comfortable talking. I plan to have volunteers who will be conducting the interviews at the ‘Grand Rapids Home for Veterans’ listen to one of Studs Terkel’s interviews which generally last about 15 minutes. This will be a perfect example and the interviewers can get a since of how I want the interviews to go.