Italian historian Alessandro Portelli talks about his research on Harlan County Appalachia, and oral history in general.
Alessandro Portelli, a professor of Anglo-American literature at Rome's La Sapienza University, who has worked extensively on oral history and the history of memory in post-war Italy (see our interview with Prof. Portelli about the Fosse Ardeatine and the struggle for memory in modern Italy) talks to students at Columbia University about his research work on Harlan County, Kentucky, which produced the book They Say in Harlan county.
It's a fascinating discussion, where Portelli talks about how he entered into the community, how his Italian nationality helped his research work, and how people relate to power, history and society.