Product Description

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Criticism, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 4857 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The use and abuse of historical reenactment: thoughts on recent trends in public history.
Author: Alexander Cook
Publication: Criticism (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 46Issue: 3Page: 487(10)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
A workbook for historical re-enactors, fantasy roleplayers, actors and writers. This workbook is for those who want togenerate an in-depth persona for the purpose of "playing" inhistorical, sci-fi or theatrical venues. Writers can also find thisbook useful as it takes one through the steps of creating a characterfrom the inside out. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Renaissance Re-Enactment
I bought this for the leader of a Renaissance Re-Enactment group that I am a part of. It is great for making your character development even more interesting, as it helps bring out different characteristics that you wouldn't normally think of. I highly recommend this book to people who are into RPGs and Re-Enactment!

Somewhat helpful, mostly disappointing.
My first complaint:while I realize this was obviously a low-budget publication, someone could have bothered to proofread the book.It is so riddled with typos, misspellings, and other errors that I got a headache reading it.For instance, she insists on being pretentious and spelling "role" with the French carat over the "o," which is incorrect in English.She also consistently refers to the Society for Creative Anachronism as the Society for Creative Anachronisms.Since she implies she is part of the Society, I would think she could verify the actual name.

Second, I found the book lacked organization.It feels more as if a veteran improvisational actor is rambling about her experiences and less like instruction.Topics lead from one to another in tangential fashion, making searching for one topic difficult, if not impossible.

Third, the book was far too wide a scope.Ms. Crockett attempts to aim this book at faire actors, fantasy/sci-fi roleplayers, SCAdians, historical re-enactors, and anyone else who plays an improvisational character.Adding to her lack of organization, she occasionally remembers to address each situation, but often concentrates on one or another, making it frustrating to read for any specific situation.I was also disappointed as I had heard it recommended as a faire reference, and yet found very little regarding the faire venue in particular.

Why, then, didn't I give it one star?I did find some of the advice offered helpful.She suggests a number of places to find information about characters and provides useful exercises and questions to ask yourself to develop your character.If I hadn't had to fight through the poor writing, I would have appreciated the content more.

Do not waste your time.Get advice from veterans, reliable Internet sources, and other books.Not hers. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
The portrayal of historical characters through interactive dramatization or roleplaying is an effective, albeit controversial, method used to bring history to life at museums, historic sites, and other public venues. Stacy Roth examines the techniques of first-person interpretation to identify those that have been most effective with audiences while allowing interpreters to maintain historical fidelity. 41 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Past into Present
I have participated as a living history first person interpreter for over 6 years, and have been a visitor at many living history sites across the country. I am also the period costume coordinator for a living history site. I have seen first hand many effective and ineffective presentations.

While reading and searching for textbooks for our upcoming "Dame School" program for young ladies at our site, I came across this book. Since the text is clear and written to be interesting as well as educational,I have chosen it as a textbook for our "school".I believe our young students will be able to relate well to the book, and that we will be able to use this book to guide them to more effectual presentations. I also highly recommend it for adults.

This book is very good at giving hints on how to engage visitors in conversations useful in imparting stories of the site one is working, as well as methods to diffuse potential problems.It presents varied types of sites which were reviewed by the author, and gives good examples of what is effective and what is not. This book also discusses class distinctions and first person interpretations of difficult and traumatic events and activities of the past, such as slavery.To give a well rounded view of history, first person interpreters can't just present the rosy side of life!

The extensive listing of living history sites which is in the back section of the book would be very useful to persons who are considering the hobby or profession of first person interpretation.

Great Book For Reenactors and Museum Docents
Television, movies, computers, even video games have changed the way we look at history. Recently written books on history are now in a style that gives the reader a greater understanding of what our founding father's and 19th century pioneer's daily lives were like.
Everything, it seems, is three dimensional today. Try visiting an American History museum - it's not your father's museum, that's for sure!
In her book, "Past Into Present," Ms. Roth just about covers every aspect of presenting history in all its glory and gore by using the process known as 1st person. First person brings the folks from the distant past back to life by having a re-enactor or a museum docent dress in period clothing, doing a job or a chore from the past, and speaking as if they actually ARE that long-dead person, alive again, here to share their knowlegde of times gone by. I, myself,impose a 1st person technique for my civilian impression in the 21st Michigan Civil War reenactors, and I must say that "Past into Present" truly helped me understand the importance of what I am representing while doing my impression. Through her book Ms. Roth also helped me see the pros and cons of being a 1st person living historian as well - how to stay in character, for instance, without jumping back and forth between first and third person.
From what I have seen at some re-enactments - and even at a museum - some living historians do not give the past the justice it deserves.They are the ones who should own this book as well. I've learned to give the reverence these folks from the past that we are emulating the respect they so deserve.
The writer can get a bit wordy (so can I, can't you tell?) but if you are one who is a bit more passionate about the past and would rather get deeper involved in history than the average person, then I would suggest you taking a gander at this book and read how you can become one from the past into the present at your next reenactment.

Sharing History
As a new recruit in the growing international army of Civil War reenactors, I was anxious to evolve past the usual march-and-shoot mass maneuvers into effective first-person interaction with spectators. Buthaving never even seen a living-history interpreter, I wasn't sure what todo. Then I found Ms. Roth's delightful book on the internet! Sheinterviewed scores of experienced interpreters at the best living-historymuseums in the United States and Canada to find out how they hook -- andkeep -- the interests of their visitors. The result is some imaginativeout-of-the-box approaches that make visitors think they're beingentertained instead of educated! The fun that the interpreters obviouslyhave with their roles is infectious -- I could hardly wait to try it! Thisis a MUST read for anyone who's ever thought of going to a historicalreinactment as either a participant or a spectator. ... Read more

Product Description
Imagine a Founding Father visiting a classroom today, or a sailor from the War of 1812, an Amish man, a 19th Century pioneer, or even a Civil War veteran.Ronald Morris has spent more than 25 years bringing these characters into classrooms and inspiring other educators to do the same. He now is synthesizing his vast knowledge and experience into a resource for all types of educators who help elementary and middle school aged children develop a love of history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful
This Book was in even better condition then described and arrived before the arrival date. Great Experience! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Criticism, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 7642 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Historiography as reenactment: metaphors and literalizations of TV documentaries.
Author: Katie King
Publication: Criticism (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 46Issue: 3Page: 459(17)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Dramatic impersonations accompanied by informed discussions are becoming increasingly popular methods of educating visitors to museums and historical sites. This is the first book to provide step-by-step instructions for how to conceive, plan, publicize, present, and pay for such historical presentations. ... Read more

Product Description
This book serves as a Bible to all who participate in reenactments of Civil War battles and units, whether they are loyal to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy or rallying around the flag of the Union forever. It contains an unparalleled wealth of information, covering uniforms down to small details such as badges and buttons; national, state, and unit flags; and accountrements such as belt buckles and ammunition boxes. The Civil War Reenactors; Handbook is based around the major battles of the conflict. An introductory section outlines in broad fashion the general issue uniforms of each side. The remainder of the book covers each of the major battles. Detailed maps show where the individual brigades of each army moved during the course of the battle, enabling reenactors to retrace the steps of their units exactly. The illustrations accompanying the maps show what might have been work by a typical member of an important unit that fought in the battle. It provides a complete package of information for both the experienced reenactor and the newcomer to this fascinating hobby. ... Read more

Product Description
IllustratedHumphrey Jennings (1907-50) was perhaps the most gifted filmmaker of the British documentary movement. Involved in the Mass Observation project of the 1930s, Jennings' talent lay in picturing ordinary life in ways that were inventive yet authentic. Fires Were Started (1943) is his major achievement. A film about a day's work for a unit of the National Fire Service at the height of the blitz, it blends observation with fictional reconstruction to achieve a particularly poignant kind of propaganda. Lindsay Anderson expressed the opinion of many commentators and viewers when he wrote in Sight and Sound (in a 1954 article reprinted as an appendix to this volume) that Jennings was "the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced." But how could a documentarist also be a poet? This is one of the questions addressed by Brian Winston in his highly engaging study of Fires Were Started-a question that is particularly relevant today in the wake of the massive public controversies surrounding "faked" documentaries. For Winston documentary filmmaking is always "creatively treated actuality" and must be taken as such if it's to be properly valued and understood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sage introduction to one of Britain's greatest filmmakers.
The most important and influential development in 1930s British cinema was the documentary movement, which was given the name by its chief practitioner, John Grierson, head of the General Post Office Film Unit. These documentaries weren't what we understand by the term today - rather than utilising fly-on-the-wall, observational techniques, these films were reconstructions of actual, 'typical' events, involving prior 'scientific' research and witness accounts, and often using scripted dialogue, sets and some kind of narrative structure.

Most of these films - dull, instructional, governmental works - are of little cinematic interest today. Only one figure emerges with claims to genius - Humphrey Jennings, Cambridge don, poet, painter, pioneering sociologist and organiser of the first British Surrealist exhibition. Jennings began work with Grierson's unit in the mid-30s, but was pre-eminent during the war, with a series of films that transcended their documentary or propaganda origins to magically capture that elusive British spirit. For this, he has been called 'The only real poet the British cinema yet produced'.

Although the most conventional of his films - a feature length drama narrating one day and night in the activities of the London Fire Brigade and the volunteer Auxiliary Fire Service during the Blitz of 1940-41 - 'Fires Were Started' is considered Jennings' masterpiece, and typical of his style. It mixes conventional 'documentary' elements, such as the training routine of the service or the structural workings of the system, with moments of pure epiphany - the flute-playing of a busker as the firemen go to work; a sing-song in the Recreation room before the exigencies of fire-fighting; the recital of poetry by Raleigh and Shakespeare. In this way, recognisable, flawed, 'ordinary' people take on an unsentimental, uncondescending, unforced stature.

Documentary theorist Brian Winston doesn't set out to question Jennings' canonical status, meticulously detailing and analysing the elements of his style instead. He puts the film in its historical context, as well as situating Jennings as both an idiosyncratic individual and as an often unwilling part of Grierson's documentary unit. He emphasises the collaborative input behind Jennings' work, in particular the contribution of editor Stewart McAllister, who achieved many of the films' most startling and evocative effects.

The details of the production are highly revealing of British attitudes at the time regarding censorship, as well as the urgent needs of censorship (e.g. the 'authentic', fruity language of the firemen had to be toned down; the important role of women is minimised; the bureaucratic bumbling of the system is ignored; the realities of the black market, conscientious objecting, shirking and other 'unpatriotic' activities are downplayed).

Most importantly, Winston distinguishes Jennings' form of propaganda, which depends on appeals to shared notions of British identity, rooted in history, culture and experience, to the brainwashing, mind-thumping of, say, Leni Riefenstahl.

He concludes with an impassioned defence of the film's 'documentary value' (and, ironically, this reconstruction has yielded some of the most famous 'real' images of the Blitz we have), in spite of failing to live up to the narrow, 'tendentious' criteria nowadays demanded of the form.

In the end, however, as Lindsay Anderson, Jennings' most famous proselytiser, noted, the magic of his world 'can be analysed only to a certain point, then it must simply be experienced'. If this book provokes enthusiastic interest in the unique joys of Jennings' cinema, than it will have been worth writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance examines the performance techniques of Living History Museums, cultural institutions that merge historical exhibits with costumed live performance. Institutions such as Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg are analyzed from a theatrical perspective, offering a new genealogy of living museum performance. ... Read more

Product Description
16-page b/w photo section, 6 x 9
Updated information on sutlers and organizations
New index with subject headings for easy reference
As Civil War reenacting continues to grow, beginners and enthusiasts need an up-to-date source and guidebook that will keep pace with advances and changes in the hobby. This second edition of the highly successful Reliving the Civil War improves on the firstwith new information on civilian reenacting (especially concerning women and children), a revised bibliography, and updated addresses of sutlers, organizations, and magazines. Also included are expanded discussions regarding virtual regiments, hard-core authenticity, and women in the ranks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Reliving the Civil War: A Reenactor's Handbook
Other than the prices being rather off, they are really too cheap, this is a good book for anyone to read who wishes to do Civil War reenacting.

One thing it does not mention is that to DO reenacting you must join a group that does such things or you will not know when they happen or where they happen.You had better have a spare thousand to outfit yourself with too, if you and your spouse wish to do it together.Once that is done though, it is a heck of a lot of fun to do.

I highly recommend both the book and the hobby.

A must for the individual interested in Civil War reenacting
Definately a must have handbook for anyone who wants to recreate the sense of the 1860s.Excellent basic information on most aspects of the reenacting hobby.With costs exceeding $1200 to take the field in correct uniform, this is money well spent!

Great Book
This is a great Book for any one interested in the American civil war and who wants to be a Reenactor.

From a reenactors point
I have reenacted for the best part of 2 decades and presented or participated in countless living history events prior to buying this book, so I was very surprised & pleased when I discovered a reference of such value for both the new recruits AND seasoned veterans. I now consider this a "Must Have" for all new members of our unit. Simple to read & understand, Valid facts, and a very good source of information. You will make it part of 'always carry' gear if you do reenact or part of your library if you don't...

Good, if not a bit dated
I first encountered this book as I was beginning my four years as a private in the re-activated 34th Georgia, Co B from Canton, GA. At the time it was the best thing (or so I thought) that was available for the newbie. Not to say it isn't a good starting point, but it's getting a bit dated now.

The price list is WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY off. Muskets can still be had for around $450 new (Used muskets vary in price, but also in quality), but expect to spend a bit more than is suggested for your first uniform and accoutrements. If I recall the estimate correctly in this manual, the price for an entire kit (uniform, period correct hat, musket, accoutrements, brogans, etc) was around $900. You can still outfit for that, if you are frugal, able to make your own clothing (I used to save a bundle by having women sew for me. Jean-cloth was fairly inexpensive a few years ago!), and have contacts that are willing to cut you big deals.

The rest of the book is a bit basic. On one hand the author talks of being aware of one's outfit and not looking FARBY (that is, goofy). On the other hand he embraces being farby and allowing modern conveniences in the camp, so long as the general public is not aware. This can be confusing to the newbie (it was to me).

The sections on proper drilling and manual of arms are well done and presented in a manner much easier to comprehend than HARDY'S.

I only wish the sections on cost and suttlers would be updated to include some newer vendors.

So, fresh-fish, you can do a lot worse than this book. ... Read more