The third side of the triangle

The title refers to the idea of the American historian Michael Frisch that oral history is an approach to perceiving and conceiving the past that is symbolically situated between "lay" individual or collective memory and "big" political history. The book introduces not only the general research community, but also the interested lay public to the issue of oral history in its theoretical and practical perspectives. The theoretically oriented part of the publication is devoted to the terminology of the field, its birth and development in the Czech environment and in the international context, as well as to the permanently discussed issue of memory in relation to oral history. The more practically oriented part deals with the possibilities and pitfalls of conducting oral history research, then it brings an updated overview of analytical approaches, updated reflections on the interpretive possibilities of oral history sources and finally it also discusses the issues of ethics and legislation as a necessary part of oral history. < br> < br> The third, updated and expanded edition of this handbook reflects the latest knowledge and experience related in particular to the multiple impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on oral history research, shifts in the field of digitization, debates over privacy issues, and the effects of current war conflicts, changes in the social climate, and geopolitical shifts on contemporary history research.