The Reenactor Post

In the last series of posts on this subject, one of our contributors mentioned the occasionally heard complaint that reenactors glorify war. Probably most folks in the hobby regard this as being unfair and misguided and slough it off as a as another example of ignorance on the part of the general public. This is probably accurate enough as far as it goes, but how do you respond to this sort of thing? It would be easy to say something sarcastic and move on to the next visitor who might be actually interested in what you are demonstrating. But if we are trying to educate the public, shouldn’t we at least make some kind of constructive response that might nudge some of these critics out of their knee-jerk attitude? I don’t think any serious living historian actually glorifies war. Wars happen and we portray people who in one way or another, get caught up in them. The impact on history and consequently, nations and people, is often huge. There are all kinds of reasons for remembering these people, their cultures and their times. Read More