tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post640542643438092372..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: The Battle of Chickamauga at 150 and Teaching with Civil War ReenactmentsRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-43558806924165591442016-06-02T10:36:24.526-04:002016-06-02T10:36:24.526-04:00Viewing reenactment is important, but I think actu...Viewing reenactment is important, but I think actually reenacting achieves more. The experience of doing brings the history itself into sharp focus, and the best form of it teaches students something about themselves. This year is the 40th anniversary of an 8-month, 3,300-mile reenactment by 16 high school boys who trained for two years to retrace authentically La Salle's voyage of discovery from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. Their successful journey, chronicled in Hard Rivers, a book to be published Aug. 9, carried them through the coldest winter in the history of the Midwest. "Reliving the past to explore the future," they learned how to speak up and to communicate with different audiences and they learned lessons in teamwork, resilience, flexibility, and courage. Not every reenactment needs to be a saga, however. Every community offers opportunities for insight into how things were done in an earlier era. Seek them out.Craignoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-23181454651091070252013-10-02T13:40:50.101-04:002013-10-02T13:40:50.101-04:00I learned a lot from Revolutionary War reenactors....I learned a lot from Revolutionary War reenactors. For me, it wasn't the battles, it was the camps, and the material culture. Those men and women knew their stuff! I still teach about how petticoats were dangerous for women stooping over fires (Longfellow's wife died that way, I think) and we learned that, I believe, from reenactors. I know how to start a fire with flint thanks to them. And to fire a musket. And how smoky black powder is. A lot of it was play, yes, but they let me experience the material culture of the past in a way that made practical sense.hcrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07334093881332383848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-67157478706685808612013-10-02T10:27:43.871-04:002013-10-02T10:27:43.871-04:00What a great teaching opportunity. Seems like an e...What a great teaching opportunity. Seems like an excellent way to talk about how history is appropriated and lived by people outside the academy. Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.com