Reenactor of the Present

The historical reenactor is a familiar American stereotype: men who don archaic garments, take up fake weapons, and stage bygone battles. At times, their dramatization can appear to be as much a game as an educational performance, founded on levels of historical accuracy that vary from faithful recreation to retrospective fantasy. Reenactment has even spawned an internal system of classification with its own neologisms, such as the less-than-authentic “farbs” (allegedly derived from “far be it from authentic,”) and “period rush,” a kind of euphoria associated with total immersion in reenactment. While reenactment undoubtedly can carry real educational value—like making history more interesting to new audiences—its costuming can sometimes teeter into a more problematic kind of imitation, or even fetishization, and has caused controversies, like when World War II reenactors dined in a Massachusetts restaurant while still dressed in Nazi uniforms.