Introduction

Abstract

When we asked our contributors to recall their initial forays into oral history, Sherna Berger Gluck and Alexander Freund were among the first to respond. Although much time has elapsed since these interviews, their memories of them are vivid, evoking anxiety, awe, and confusion. Do you remember your first oral history interview? What comes to mind? Were you nervous as you knocked on the door? What were your first impressions? Were you excited? Scared? How did the interview go? Did you talk too much or not enough? Were there deafening silences or awkward laughter? Did you hit it off or were you glad to leave? Did you ask yourself, as Gluck did, “what [have] I gotten myself into?” Does it still evoke particular memories for you, as it does for Freund?