The First Post

This is the first post of this blog, so I want to clarify my intentions and tell my history.

I like to think of myself as moderately well-versed in the world of reenacting and living history. I have a BA with both History and Education and majors (I want to make it more, but I'm still young and poor, and I have a child on the way). In addition to having been a reenactor since 2006, I have also started a few reenacting organizations and coordinated two major Civil War reenactments (2013 and 2014) and coordinated one Medieval/Renaissance Historical Encampment section of a Renaissance Faire (2014). I like to think of myself as decently active in the online Reenacting Community for many eras.

I got into reenacting for a very fun and nerdy reason (don't we all!?). There is a video game called Age of Empires 3, which focuses on warfare in colonial America. At the time I was interested in what was called "Modding," where fans of a game will go in and alter the game's files to change it. In this case, I joined a group (and eventually led the group) that was making the game called "Age of Rebellion" that would turn this colonial America game into one about the Civil War. It was fun, I did tons of research on the generals and types of soldiers, and I could change the game mechanics, but I didn't know how battles were fought at the time. I literally though "how can I see how battles were fought? OH! Reenactments!"

At that point, I looked up the uniform requirements, convinced my parents this was a good idea, and found a unit. That unit, located in eastern Michigan, was the first sign for me that something wasn't right in the reenacting community. There were a few friendly members, most of which were educators and teachers with degrees, but there were also plenty of other people there who were not the most friendly. I would ask on their forum how to do research on this and that, why we do this and that and not this, and folks would either ignore me or shut me down. Most of the members of the group seemed to like it for the guns and the beer.

Oh the beer at reenactments! It's not that bad at night when the park is closed, but it's so damn popular that reenactors still think it's funny when on the battlefield the officers will command "Drink!" to keep up hydrated. but someone always has to yell "Water!" as if to clarify not to drink beer. A HUR HUR Hur hur huuuuur! .... The sad thing is that everyone laughs like they're in on a joke or something.

Along with the beer thing is the lack of reenactors to actually educate. This is the big thing, the straw that breaks my damn back!  There are HUNDREDS, sometimes THOUSANDS, (sometimes dozens) of you here, so proud of your authentic, properly stitched, custom made right grommet of your tent  or some junk like that! But you sit around by the campfire and don't even talk to the spectators (aka. Patrons, visitors, mundanes, moderns, etc.) who are here to learn! You don't talk to them, you don't offer to guide them around the camp, you don't even say "Hi, this is the Civil War! It took place a long time ago! This is a musket! That is a tent! Have a good one!" No, you ignore them, even so much as to arrange your camp so the campfire is FAAAAARRR away from the path so you don't even need to feel obligated!

At one reenactment, I saw a couple were walking into our camp and were looking at our tents and our setups. I asked around the campfire if anyone wanted to come teach with me, but literally no one even said a word. I got up by myself and started talking to them. If you are going to spend all this time and money and effort to do this, at least help it benefit society from it, or even just show off your shiny new $500 coat!

Speaking of coats and garb (clothing, uniforms, outfits, etc. [not costumes]), this whole upping one another on how authentic or appropriate your clothes are is destroying reenacting! I won't write a whole lot about this because it deserves its own section, or many many sections, but I can't believe just how much ignorance revolves around the damn clothes to the point of insulting people and assuming essentially that if you don't have a 110% authentic piece of clothing then you are garbage and do not deserve to even begin to teach people because clearly you know nothing about this era.

There is SO MUCH potential for living history and the future of history education. Our current society and our future generations want to be entertained! They want their focus to be held! They can learn, yes, from reading history in textbooks or watching the teacher use the same boring old powerpoint slides, but those methods make it so incredibly difficult for a learner to gain a true connection and respect for the stories of history and heritage. Living history is the future of historical education, as long at the Reenacting Society does not ruin it.

If that was the thesis for this blog, my various posts will be the paragraphs that support it, providing examples and giving analysis. I know there are others out there, join me!