Social History Interview Project

Is it useful to ask the question, Who am I?

Is it useful to ask the question, Who are we?
Social History is an often-overlooked aspect to studying
the human experience as a whole. Teachers, textbooks,
school curricula, and even historians fall victim to the Great
Man Theory, which makes the false assumption that all of
history can largely be explained by the impact of great men
or heroes. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it
leaves out the even greater impact of social conditions and
the normal, everyday people who helped to establish those.
Like the great sociologist and anthropologist of the
nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer, your job will be to
rectify this false assumption.
Interview three members of the community.
These cannot be family members and they must be at
least four years older than you. In choosing your three
community members, try to diversify your selection (age,
ethnicity, etc.) in order to get a broader understanding of our
community.
In order to engage members of the community, ask
questions that target their own personal history and identity.
The following is a list of questions that would be important to
ask in order to better understand your community member.

Questions:
1. What is your full name?
2. On what date were you born?
3. Place of birth (list of all the places you have lived)
4. ethnic background
5. your education
6. your job
7. your family
8. your physical characteristics
9. your skills/abilities
10. Have them write down a list of 10 things that identify
them and put them in order of importance.
11. Do you see yourself differently than other people see
you?
12. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently,
if anything?
13. What is a dream of yours that you plan on making a
reality?

This is by no means a complete list. If there are other

questions that you deem important, by all means ask them!
These questions are essentially a start to a mini-biography
that you will write for all three of your community members.
Each mini-biography should be 2 pages, doublespaced. For each interview, ask whether or not you can
include a picture of them in their mini-biography.

After having written your three 2-page minibiographies, you will write a one-page conclusion in which
you connect all three members through any similarities or
differences that they have. These can be life events,
personality traits, shared passions, etc. Explain why your
three community members should be learned about in
history classes. As devils advocate, you will have to work
hard to persuade me!