ABSTRACT
The life history presents the experiences and definitions held by one person, one group, or one organization as this person, group, or organization interprets those experiences. This chapter discusses the major forms of the life history, details the steps by which data are collected, discusses the method's analytic forms, and presents what the author feel are its unique advantages for contemporary sociology. Life history materials include any record or document, including the case histories of social agencies, that throws light on the subjective behavior of individuals or groups. These may range from letters to autobiographies, from newspaper accounts to court records. A careful transcription of an interview, provided it does not intermix the interviewer's own interpretations, is as much a form of life history data as is a personal diary. If analytic induction provides the model of inference for the life history method, then it is apparent that the sampling model becomes a variant of theoretical sampling theory.
