Estimates of the number of lives taken by the guillotine during the French Revolution range from 17,000 to 40,000 citizens. It is thought that three-quarters of the executed were innocent. In its glory days, the guillotine took 3,000 lives in one month.
Oral History: Defined. Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.
Dictionary entry overview: What does oral mean? â¢ ORAL (noun) The noun ORAL has 1 sense: 1. an examination conducted by word of mouth Familiarity information: ORAL used as a noun is very rare. â¢ ORAL (adjective) The adjective ORAL has 4 senses: 1. using speech rather than writing 2. of or relating to or affecting or for use in the mouth