The myths we live by

All the papers ... presented at the Sixth International Oral History Conference on 'Myth and History' held at St. John's College, Oxford, on 11-13 September 1987"--Acknowledgements.

Introduction - Raphael Samuel and Paul Thompson. Part 1 - The making of myth. 1 History and the myth of realism - Elizabeth Tonkin. 2 Myths in life stories - Jean Peneff. 3 Mythbiography in oral history - Luisa Passerini. 4 Myths in contemporary oral transmission: a children's strike - Rosanna Basso. Part 2 - Nationhood and minorities. 5 The Anzac legend: exploring national myth and memory in Australia - Alistair Thomson. 6 William Wallace and Robert the Bruce: the life and death of a national myth - Marinell Ash. 7 Myth, impotence, and survival in the concentration camps - Anna Bravo, Lilia Davite, and Daniele Jalla. 8 Abraham Esau's war, 1899-1901: martyrdom, myth, and folk memory in Calvinia, South Africa - Bill Nasson. Part 3 - Manhood and images of women. 9 Free sons of the forest: storytelling and the construction of identiity among Swedish lumberjacks - Ella Johansson. 10 Uchronic dreams: working-class memory and possible worlds - Alessandro Portelli. 11 Myth as suppression: motherhood and the historical consciousness of the women of Madrid, 1936-9 - Elena Cabezali, Matilde Cuevas, and Maria Teresa Chicote. 12 Myth as a framework for life stories: Athapaskan women making sense of social change in northern Canada - Julie Cruikshank. Part 4 - Family stories. 14 Ancient Greek family tradition and democracy: from oral history to myth. 15 The power of family myths -John Byng-Hall, interviewed by Paul Thompson. 16 Changing images of German maids during the inter-war period in the Netherlands: from trusted help to traitor in the nest - Barbara Henkes. 17 Stepchildren's memories: myth, understanding, and forgiveness - Natasha Burchardt

'Myths are no mere archaic relics but a potent force in everyday life, part of our collective unconscious....Yet myths have been strangely neglected by historians, and in these essays the authors challenge historians' traditional preoccupation with concrete realities, demanding recognition for the power of myth in shaping the actions and the imagination of the present.....'

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