The event is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the Edwin and Mary Meader Rare Book Room at Waldo Library. His talk is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. An Oral History of World War II American and German Prisoners of War. He is currently working on a book about Korean War prisoners.
Oral historians enter more into the process than just doing interviews.
They try to provide a literary narrative that is the result of exhaustive research. Oral history is not a widely accepted historical research practice, Carlson says, noting that most of today's oral historians are not in the academic world. Perhaps the best known, he says, is journalist Studs Terkel. Carlson, who has been at WMU since 1968, has been involved in oral history for 15 years. He teaches courses in social history and popular culture and is the director of WMU's American Studies Program.