Movement Without Aim Summary

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information with people having personal knowledge of past events. In the article “ Movement Without Aim,” Ronald J Grele discussed how the world views oral history and how it should not be taken seriously. Grele formed a strong argument due to the way he debated the irrelevance and how unsuccessful oral history is in the modern world. In the article Grele projected a strong and effective argument with the usage of quotes and how others felt about the relevance of oral history. The importance of having quotes and other people’s thoughts is to have an argument that is not just their opinion. It shows that Grele has taken what other scholars argues previously, and based his argument on what they stated. When he uses other people's thoughts and words it shows that he has some background information on the topic. Having background is imperative when making an argument because without it, the person is just stating their uneducated opinion. In the article when he uses the quotes and thoughts, it gives the reader the impression that Grele has done his research before forming his thoughts. He used an interview from professors Cantor and Garraty, to show that even the
When Grele included his knowledge about jobs and the opportunities of them, he is proving that oral history is not that important. In the modern world most people assume that if jobs do not come out of something it is not important, it’s just a hobby. Grele stated the unimportance of oral history when he says, “Despite this growth and the evidence that more and more historians are using the oral history interview in their own work, there has been little discussions of oral history by historians” ( 39). With his statement, he explained how the only people that respect and view oral history as a career are the ones who