Stealing sissy's blog post, with rant of my own

http://theebonswan.blogspot.com/2012/03/petersons-magazine-fashion.html?m=1

I'm stealing another of my sister's posts, not just because period fashion plates are fun to look at, but her rant about living historians dressing according to one's place in society (their impression, that is), also it brought a few things to mind for me.

One, there are reports of women wearing hoopskirts while working in the arsenals. First off, most of these ladies were the working poor and might not have even owned hoops, let alone worn them to work, wearing them out. Secondly, women and girls were supposedly hired for their smaller frames and could thus be packed in like sardines. I know from personal experience that hoops take up a lot of space.
Two, there is a theory (about which I will post momentarily) that static electricity from ladies' dress material created enough charge to spark the Allegheny Arsenal explosion.

Some food for thought...

Sorry, couldnt resist: South Park reenacts the Civil War

http://cwmemory.com/2009/10/27/south-park-reenacts-the-civil-war/

This is one reason I love the Civil War Memory blog. One of my favorite shows, South Park, did an episode years ago about a Civil War reenactment. And they get a lot of things right. You can watch the full episode at the link.

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Blog: On Reenacting

http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2011/09/on-reenacting.html

This is another blogger who has made a rebuttal in response to the idea that Civil War living historians are vapid and are missing the point politically (read: slavery), made by president of Harvard and Civil War author Drew Gilpin Faust.

As someone who has spent the last 15 years in the hobby, this is a subject close to my heart. Most of the other reenactors I have gotten to know are like family (and in some cases, literally are). Granted, you have those who come to a reenactment here and there for no other reason to blow powder. And yes, our group has had its share of shenanigans (safely, of course). But the hobby - indeed, lifestyle - has a lot more to offer than many academic historians would like to admit.

It is not that the majority of living historians are ignorant of, or indifferent to, the politics surrounding slavery which caused the war. It is that, less than 50 years coming off of the civil rights movement (because the Civil War only created more issues of race), there is still a great deal of debate *how* to present slavery and the lives of African Americans during that time in a sensitive manner, especially in a hobby that is overwhelmingly white. So unintentionally, it is usually swept under the rug at these events. Hopefuly in time, there will be more ways of teaching slavery without being offensive.

Still, the hobby is not without merit. Yes, it is a lot of fun. While we cannot completely live as our ancestors did (although some living historians known as hardcores try in every way possible to replicate how soldiers lived, down to counting the number of stitches in their clothing), living history gives us, as well as the audience, the *idea* of how they lived. One can see the styles of clothing that they wore, the type of food they ate, even the way they talked (among first-person reenactors) - everything short of dysentery and amputations. So short of making oneself that miserable - although we've spent quite a few cold, rainy nights in leaky canvas - we can come fairly close to how they lived and raise questions among spectators. Still a more stimulating environment than the traditional books and classrooms, no? Pretty much all living historians will happily talk your ear off when asked.

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Article: "Civil War reenactors immerse themselves in time period"

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11205/1162625-506-0.stm

An article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from almost two weeks about about Civil War reenactors and their passion and devotion to their hobby. I know a couple of the living historians featured, and I disagree 100% with opinions that living history has no value to the profession or to education. This is what piques people's interest and spurs them to study history more in depth. It also creates a more lasting impression among spectators about how life was then. And it's fun, of course.

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For those who love historical cooking, living history, and the like

Here is my big sister's blog: http://theebonswan.blogspot.com/ She has done a good deal to promote my own work and helped me with the original paper (among many other things).

She is an interpreter/archivist at West Overton Museums in Scottdale, PA, and often blogs about museum events. She also does a lot of work with historical foodways and cooking from Medieval on up. (I give her props for that; my idea of cooking is heating something from the freezer. She got the cooking gene from our father where I didn't). We are both very involved in living history, both Civil War and medieval, so there are many topics within that as well. So...check it! It's a nice place to geek out.

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