Abstract This article offers a survey of the past fifty years’ literature on oral history and ethics, arguing that oral historians’ approaches to ethics have emerged from two major fears: the fear of failing as researchers and the fear of failing our narrators and doing harm. These professional and personal fears have evolved through three distinct but overlapping phases: postwar positivism, the subjective turn, and contemporary interdisciplinarity. Confronting them makes it possible to understand the complex questions behind oral historians’ preoccupations. This sheds light on how oral history has evolved and expanded as a field, and what we hope it can and will achieve.

中文翻译：

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谁害怕口述历史？五十年的伦理争论和焦虑

摘要 本文综述了过去 50 年关于口述历史和伦理的文献，认为口述历史学家的伦理学方法源于两大恐惧：害怕作为研究人员失败，害怕让我们的叙述者失败并造成伤害。 . 这些职业和个人的恐惧经历了三个不同但重叠的阶段：战后实证主义、主观转向和当代跨学科。直面他们可以理解口述历史学家关注的复杂问题。这揭示了口述历史作为一个领域是如何演变和扩展的，以及我们希望它能够并且将实现的目标。