Memory: an historical source for the left hand. Literature and research experiences

This note focuses on oral history, oral sources and oral archives in relation with the practice and writing of business history. The structure of the paper is the following. The author considers: first the distinctivness of oral source; then methods and procedures in oral history; third a brief outline of the recent debate on memory (as object of academic studies investigating how this faculty operates); fourth presentation of personal research experience in order to define what are the most genuine contributions of oral source to historical perspective and for what levels of analysis. Some final remarks concern the relation between the ‘witness’ and the social scientist and argue in favour of the collection of open oral archives.