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New(ish) book on reenacting


jgawne
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Sigh. A wanna be actor from LA decides it would be fun to go to a bunch of reenactments and write a book about all his wacky and zany times.

Yeah. That's what I thought. Just great.

 

"Man of War: My Adventures in the World of Historical Reenactment" I would not recomend buying it, and not to borrow and read it if you get irritated easily.

 

Now, I have not read the entire book (see why above) , just some sections, and that's enough for me. I also heard him speak about the book. UGH. He insists on calling WW2 German things "Nazis" EVERY SINGLE TIME he mentions anything. NAZI Soldiers, NAZI rifles, NAZI haircuts. And, he wimps out on his first battle as it is too rough for him. And gosh what zany people we are. In the end I don't think he really has any clue. Reenactors are just a foil for him to make fun of, and get wacky annecdotes to write about. And his humopr is pretty sophmoric. or as he might say "NAZI Humor." Yup, he describes one guy as "wearing a Sgt Schultz like helmet."

 

From what I saw he really did not do any in depth research on reenacting as a hobby, just went to whatever event was next, without even thinking about trying to make the biggest or best or whatever of that period. I could go to a small civil war event in East Bum...ford Mississippi and get a pretty weird view of ACW reenactments.

 

He has no clue whatso ever of reenactments outside the USA. No clue they have them Russia, Australia, (or even France). And thinks that ACW is the biggest period for reenactments in the UK. Oh, and American reenactors that do a period where the stuff happened in Europe (i.e. WW1, WW2, And Roman) don't go to visit the sites, and don't even want to. He thinks it is becasue it would "ruin their fantasy of what the places are like." Moron.

 

In a way I wish the folks that kitted him out and allowed into the events had just said no. Oh, and NAZI!

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I hope you posted this on amazon.

 

I saw this yesterday at the book store and I didn't get a good vibe from it.

 

Leonardo

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Ah, ah, ah!

We badly needed such a help, as if most of the people didn't already use think we are just a bunch of weirdos or worse, fans of wars.

I think it's one of the few cases you can tell a book from the cover (see google images).

The only way it's too continue to do our job as best as we can and hold on... :thumbsup:

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If you want to read a GOOD book on reenactors, check out War Games by Jenny Thompson.

 

http://www.amazon.com/WAR-GAMES-Thompson-J...r+game+thompson

 

She is a trained academic who wondered why anyone would want to reenact some of the most intense combat in history. She actually became a reenactor as part of her research while being very open about her purpose. Excellent read.

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carthage light guard

I agree with your assessment of the Schroeder book (Man of War). I can't say I've read it either, but I watched him on C-Span last weekend, and he seemed to only want to read those sections of the book that made reenactors appear silly--in other words, he went for cheap laughs in an attempt to sell books, rather than discuss any other aspects of living history. Disappointing, to say the least.

Jeff

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I remember hearing of a book project in the 90s about WW2 re-enacting, but I think it never came to pass. There has yet to be a good book about the hobby that doesn't make us all look like we're nuts.

If you want to read a GOOD book on reenactors, check out War Games by Jenny Thompson.

Many re-enactors hate that book, but I think she did a decent job calling it as she saw it.

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I remember hearing of a book project in the 90s about WW2 re-enacting, but I think it never came to pass. There has yet to be a good book about the hobby that doesn't make us all look like we're nuts.

Many re-enactors hate that book, but I think she did a decent job calling it as she saw it.

I agree with this. It didn't make fun of the hobby, but showed what it really is all about.

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The subject of Third Reich reenactors is not easy and requires very long observation to decide if to write a book about them or not. A quarter of century I was military history publicist and publisher and knew many TR reenactors and observed them very carefully because -- frankly speaking -- they are very, very specific group of people, I would say the most specific in the reenactment community. Their motivations to be TR reenactor are different and many times inconclusive. And yes, small percentage of them are anti-Semites and fans of neonazi movements. What percentage? I would say between 1 and 3. The author who calls every TR reenactor "nazi" does not know what is he writing about.

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I glanced at this one on the bookstore shelf recently.....and fully concur with the original post.

 

Maybe the author should write a book that makes authors look stupid. Oh wait, he just did.

 

:thumbdown:

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Being a WWI and II German reenactor myself, I can tell you it's not uncommon to be called a Nazi (obviously). When it does happen we have to explain not all Germans supported the Nazis and that we portray combatants. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I love doing GI. Gregory nailed it perfectly. German reenactors can be your average joe with a great interest in WWII Germany, obviously nothing wrong with that. But then you have the sketchy reenactors and closet Nazis. While I don't necessarily have a big problem with Waffen SS reenactors, I wonder why so many want to reenact the worst of the SS units. I have friends that do Waffen SS but I will never wear an SS uniform, combatant or not. I only reenact Heer right now but I intend do Luftwaffe one day. In my opinion, they should have the majority of reenactors rather than the SS. As a friend of mine said: "the SS made up less than 10% of the German forces, yet make up 90% or more of German reenactors".

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Being a WWI and II German reenactor myself, I can tell you it's not uncommon to be called a Nazi (obviously). When it does happen we have to explain not all Germans supported the Nazis and that we portray combatants. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I love doing GI. Gregory nailed it perfectly. German reenactors can be your average joe with a great interest in WWII Germany, obviously nothing wrong with that. But then you have the sketchy reenactors and closet Nazis. While I don't necessarily have a big problem with Waffen SS reenactors, I wonder why so many want to reenact the worst of the SS units. I have friends that do Waffen SS but I will never wear an SS uniform, combatant or not. I only reenact Heer right now but I intend do Luftwaffe one day. In my opinion, they should have the majority of reenactors rather than the SS. As a friend of mine said: "the SS made up less than 10% of the German forces, yet make up 90% or more of German reenactors".

 

 

Same as US airborne then! ;)

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For the Polish MoD press and other civvie magazines approx. 11-13 years ago I wrote series of the articles on WWII dedicated reenacting. I interviewed then both the Polish and American reenactors (of the PALHA among others) and asked them about the neonazis problem I heard and saw in various TR living history groups. All of the reenactors interviewed -- from both continents -- answered something like "Yes, the problem of anti-Semites and neonazis does exist but such guys have very short life in our groups. If we feel that given as...le likes TR ideology too much then he is kicked aside immediately."

 

Generally speaking -- the problem of TR fanatics in reenactment movement is not greater than the same problem in given population. In both cases it is social-political plankton.

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Tommymonkey192

Hmmm... I saw it at Barnes & Noble the other day. Here's some of the reviews from Amazon.

 

Picking up on the idea from Tony Horowitz' "Confederates in the Attic," Charlie Schroeder travels around the country visiting and participating in historical reenactments from different time periods, including Roman, Colonial, Civil War, WWII, and Vietnam. I did chuckle a few times but overall I think that the author thinks he is funnier than he is. Actually, he came off as rather elitist. Charlie decided that most reenactors are right-wing nutcases and went about trying to prove it by relating quite a few strange comments on politics that he heard while he was on his year-long adventure. Charlie doesn't "get it," therefore he decided to just mock it. He seems to have cherry picked the oddest and strangest among this group of history fanatics in his attempt to prove the myth that they are all a bunch of crackpots. I'm very disappointed that he never got down to some serious Q & A with his victims to tell me why they do what they do and what it means to them. The book served to document a succession of missed opportunities, after having devoted so much time and money traveling around the country. His circus stunt "history ambush" walk between the two California missions in the last chapter was just idiotic. Charlie doesn't talk about the positives of reenacting, like turning people of all ages on to history in a real first person way. You know, like those living historians did for him at Old Fort MacArthur Days as he describes in the beginning of book. He has done a great disservice to those living historians whose main goal is to educate the public, rather than just play dress up. Don't judge the living historians you encounter at state and national parks based on what you read in this book.

 

Man of War is very entertaining in places. The first chapter had my eye watering it was so funny. The breadth is also really interesting, he doesn't just cover the more well-known reenactments such as the American Revolution or Civil War but goes into Roman, WWII and Vietnam reenactments among others.

 

However, in the very first chapter he describes himself as "NPR listening, New York Times-reading, foreign film-watching, progressive urbanite, friend to gays, Jews, people of color and artists." He often uses his narrative to get in the "last word" when he disagrees with the more conservative reenactors he encounters.

 

The chapter on Vietnam becomes particularly preachy. At one point he implies that the reason that so much of the military is made up of people from the mid-west and small towns is primarily motivated by economics - and given the choice, the investment (or at least a significant portion of it) in the military would have been better spent providing paintbrushes and hammers to those 18 year olds to "spruce up old storefronts."

 

Also, in the Vietnam chapter he says "... I've never wanted something so bad I'd ask others to die for it." Ironically I read this chapter during the 2012 Summer Olympics right before NBC aired their special on the Battle of Britain and the sacrifice that so many made to halt Hitler's progress across Europe. I couldn't help but wonder if Mr. Schroeder at 38 has enjoyed the blessings of liberty for too long at too low a personal cost if he could so easily dismiss all human conflict as meaningless.

 

Even with all that, the political and social slant is not overwhelming, and there are several genuinely entertaining and passages in the book.

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Being a WWI and II German reenactor myself, I can tell you it's not uncommon to be called a Nazi (obviously). When it does happen we have to explain not all Germans supported the Nazis and that we portray combatants. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I love doing GI. Gregory nailed it perfectly. German reenactors can be your average joe with a great interest in WWII Germany, obviously nothing wrong with that. But then you have the sketchy reenactors and closet Nazis. While I don't necessarily have a big problem with Waffen SS reenactors, I wonder why so many want to reenact the worst of the SS units. I have friends that do Waffen SS but I will never wear an SS uniform, combatant or not. I only reenact Heer right now but I intend do Luftwaffe one day. In my opinion, they should have the majority of reenactors rather than the SS. As a friend of mine said: "the SS made up less than 10% of the German forces, yet make up 90% or more of German reenactors".

 

Eh everyone just wants to be the baddest bad guy or good guy they can. That's why you have events that turn into E/506th + 2nd Ranger v.s Waffen SS + LW Paratroops. I wish people were concerned as much about the fact they're wearing a size XXXL paratrooper uniform, then if it's the exact same shade as Maj Winter's. Probably why when you see Star Wars folks on TV everyone is dressed as Darth Vader or Boba Fett....same deal.

 

Seriously though if you have more than one X in front of the L an you're not over 6'3...never go to any events on active duty bases please. But that's another topic.

 

I like playing an engineer with a mine detector.....no glory, just guts. That's often how it is....

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  • 1 month later...

The first chapter of his book is about German WWII reenacting. That was Drive on Stalingrad 2009, a tactical immersion between German Heer troops and Soviet army troops only. By far the best event I've been to. Anyway, he snuck in there and wrote about us talking bad about two of my friends and then complaining about how hard it was. He was actually in my unit there! Then he went on to say that all of us Texas boys in his unit couldnt make it through the rigor so we left after day one. Actually one of our unit members went into some sort of shock due to his diabetes. So he has the balls to call us out on leaving because it 'was too hard' but in reality he had to spend the night in some guys truck.

 

Oh, and no one let him in knowing he was a journalist. We thought he was interested in the hobby.

 

Sam

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