This is a completely different book from the original Oral Tradition (1961 and 1966) and hence it is right that it should have a different title. It is also a very much better book than the original, though it does not have the pioneering importance which made the original an academic best-seller ... . It addresses itself directly and without apology to an account of the process by which oral history is produced ... . The result is an enormously more subtle and convincing book than the original ... . Its appeal should not be limited to historians of Africa nor indeed to historians as such since it has very interesting things to say about the structuring of human memory and very effective criticisms to make of structuralism. In short it is a remarkable book. -

• Oral tradition as process - Performance, tradition and text - Getting the message - The message is a social product - The message expresses culture - Tradition as information remembered - Oral tradition assessed