Reenactments, Military
Reenactments, Military.The vibrant subculture of battle reenactment is too often thought of as merely a hobby or as activity unworthy of sustained analytical attention. Americans have commemorated wars in a number of ways. Patriotic rhetoric, for example, reinforces the primal themes of patriotic orthodoxy: war as holy crusade that brings new life to the warrior and the nation. It asks the living to rededicate themselves to the ideals for which the warrior died. Monument building is designed to instill the lesson of sacrifice in the civic consciousness, and preservation of battlefields is designed to “freeze” the message in a commemorative environment. Battle reenactment claims to offer participants—and to a lesser extent observers—imaginative entry into a heroic past. Such reenactments are important cultural rituals, and the activities and motivations of reenactors—ranging from those who offer “impressions” of
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