Local and Oral History+The coverage of history is always expansive and taught in broad strokes of historical periods, of large spaces, and of prominent personalities. * Very little is known of a subdiscipline of local history. Local History-the study of the history of a particular community or a smaller unit of geography. + In recent studies, local history tends to cover all of the topics such as that of local communities, local institutions, local groups, local heroes, etc. * Local historians study the history of local institutions like churches. They also study the local economies, local heroes, and local events.* Local history, thus, is also abroad and dynamic field of inquiry that aims to have an in-depth understanding of certain locale. + The most compelling question is why study and do local history? +The repository of collective memory of the past is important in forging of national unity through identification with a common collective past. * Nevertheless, nationalism, like other ideologies, when taken into extreme can produce the most horrendous of human tragedies. In this case of extreme nationalism, history is being used by states in forms of official national history to rally the people behind them.* Local history can serve as a balancer of these tendencies by showing the peculiarities in certain locales in a particular nation, region, or continent. * Studying local history can provide new and_ alternative interpretations on the different aspects of a nation’s history. * Local history also facilitates a historical narrative emanating from the people. * Historians call this the history from below. * Studying local history shall provide new provisions and perspectives on the already established national history.+ What used to be a generalizing narrative of the nation would start to recognize certain nuances and uniqueness in the experience of people coming from different localities in the nation. * Local history is not just aimed at opposing the discourse in the national histories but is also a tool of enriching these national narratives. * Despite the smaller scope of study, doing local history is not an easy task. Historians are often faced with challenges in locating sources for local and specific objects of study. * Sources abound on subjects of national importance but tend to be scarce on local subjects.+ Nevertheless, this limitation should encourage historians to innovate and recreate local historical methodology. One important historical methodology to local history is oral history. * Oral history is important in the midst of scarcity in written sources, historical documents, and other material evidences. * Oral history uses oral accounts of historical subjects, witnesses, members of the communities, and the like. * Oral history primarily relies on memory. The subject of the informant will recount his experiences to the researcher as he remembers it. In other instances, the informant will relay what he learned from his ancestors or older members of the community to the historian. This nature and definition of oral history caused positivist historians or those who subscribe to the belief that history should be primarily based on written documents to criticize the methods of oral history.+ Memory is seen as something that is faulty and inaccurate. At best, positivist historians see oral accounts as mere supplement to the history written from written documents. * One cannot discount the importance of oral history in writing the history of underprivileged sectors and communities like the urban poor or indigenous peoples. These groups are usually left out on records. They were undocumented because of their status. * It is the task of the historian to search for alternative methods that will capture the experience and collective pasts of these communities.* Local and oral history are important endeavors in the development and enrichment in the discipline of history. These efforts fill the gaps in the discipline by highlighting alternative areas of study and methodology toward a more holistic, inclusive, and progressive study of our past. SOURCES: Candelaria, JL.P. and Alporha,V.C.(2018). Readings in Philippine History. Philippines: Rex Book Store, Inc.