Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Introduction to Commonwealth Oral Histories
Professor Philip Murphy
Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
This video provides a short introduction to the Commonwealth Oral History Project (COHP). It discusses the origins and the rationale of the project, and argues that oral history provides a particularly valuable means of exploring the development of the modern Commonwealth since 1965. The organisation actively encouraged informal discussions between the representatives of its member states, and in many instances, no written records survives of these contacts. The recollections of the project’s interviewees therefore provide important and unique insights into the Commonwealth method of ‘quiet diplomacy’.