A book by a good friend of ours, Dr. Jenny Thompson! All about reenactors... Jenny has been writing this book for many years and has finally finished it.

I got my copy and read it right through. Fun to try and figure out who is who (Jenny changed the names to protect the foolish) Also, I am amused to see myself quoted a few times ;-)

---

Product Description

The first in-depth, insider's study of the strange and often shocking world of twentieth-century war reenactors

D-Day with beach umbrellas in the distance? Troops ordering ice cream? American and German forces celebrating Christmas together in the barracks? This could only be the curious world of twentieth-century war reenactors. A relatively recent and rapidly expanding phenomenon, reenactments in the United States of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War now draw more than 8,000 participants a year. Mostly men, these reenactors celebrate, remember, and re-create the tiniest details of the Battle of the Bulge in the Maryland woods, D day on a beach in Virginia, and WWI trench warfare in Pennsylvania. Jenny Thompson draws on seven years of fieldwork, personal interviews, and surveys to look into this growing subculture. She looks at how the reenactors' near obsession with owning "authentic" military clothing, guns, paraphernalia, and vehicles often explodes into heated debates. War Games sheds light on the ways people actually make use of history in their daily lives and looks intensely into the meaning of war itself and how wars have become the heart of American history. The author's photographs provide incredible evidence of how "real" these battles can become. 40 b/w photographs.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #910836 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The patriotic pageantry of the Civil War is one thing, but who would want to reenact the bloody stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front? Actually, a lot of people. There are at least 8,000 would-be warriors intent on honoring the sacrifice-and, above all, the look-of the unsung soldiers of modern conflicts, be they Americans, British, Russians, Vietnamese or Germans. Historian Thompson surveyed hundreds of reenactors, observed their public living history displays and did her part by attending private reenactments, posing variously as a Red Cross driver, a war correspondent and a Soviet infantrywoman. By day participants march, attack, fire blanks and commit atrocities (reenactors seem to delight in being captured and summarily executed and having their corpses looted), the dead returning to life after a few minutes to rejoin the fray. By night they feast, drink, tell war stories and dirty jokes, and generally bask in campsite and barracks room camaraderie. Most of all, they critique the period authenticity of the tiniest details of other reenactors’ uniforms, accessories, haircut, lingo and body type. What do these weekend Valhallas mean? Not terribly acutely, Thompson figures it’s all about her subjects’ conflicted feelings about war and masculinity, the ownership of history and "the failure of modern society to provide social relationships on a human scale." Or maybe the martial atmosphere just gives men license to indulge their feminine side by obsessing over appearance and excluding others for their fashion faux pas. Anyway, it’s a subculture hell-bent on making a spectacle of itself, so there’s plenty of surface entertainment in Thompson’s engaging and sympathetic study. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Thompson's wholly admirable study of the reenactors of twentieth-century wars focuses on the World War II contingent, which is numerically larger than the rest put together (second largest is that for World War I, while other reenactors concentrate on Korea, Vietnam, and the Spanish Civil War). Thompson studied reenactor groups on the East Coast for seven years, especially the reenactors representing the U.S. Fourth Armored Division and the Grossdeutschland, an equally elite German tank division whose kit, for reenactment purposes, carefully omits the swastika. Thompson doesn't elide the faults of the reenactors, which include short tempers, quarrels over historical accuracy, and, occasionally, far-out politics, but she emphasizes that, in a sometimes roundabout way, they are studying history from the individual participant's point of view and seeking both wartime and contemporary camaraderie, a convincing illusion of being in the moment, and a way of identifying with the common soldier's experience. She doesn't give them a clean bill of health, so to speak, but does pronounce them eminently worthy of civilized consideration and only informed criticism, which she supplies in abundance. Approachable even by readers not interested in reenactment, this is a splendid example of a PC sympathizer fair-mindedly studying a largely non-PC phenomenon. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Jenny Thompson spent seven years attending war reenactments and getting to know their participants. She has taught American studies and history at the University of Maryland and Roosevelt University and lives in Evanston, Illinois.

---

Customer Reviews

Dead-on accurate!
Okay, I'm actually IN this book and one of the people who's names have been changed to protect the "innocent." I own reenactor.Net and am a WWI and WWII reenactor myself. In saying that, I think I have a pretty good handle on the book, the hobby and how it is.

I know Jenny Thompson and she interviewed myself and a number of others when writing the book. Yes, it's brutally honest and does show some of the "puffy people" for what they are, but in doing so, Jenny gives a pretty accurate portrayal of the hobby... and YES, I did wince at some of the stuff, but it's TRUE.

If you're interested in WWII (and WWI) reenacting, by all means, buy this book -- it will give you a pretty insight into the hobby.

I read some of the other reviews and frankly, some are just "sour grapes" -- there were very few things in the book that I didn't agree with and got a big laugh to see myself quoted (a horrifyingly large amount of times)...

Anyway, this is all my opinion, but since I've been in WWI since 1989 and WWII since 1991, I think I know of what I speak. If you're interested in the hobby, then buy this book!

Thompson Nails It
I have just finished reading Jenny Thompson's book "War Games". I know that a few of you attacked this book when it was first released, but now having read it, I do not think that any of those attacks were justified.

The book is a deep look into our hobby. As I read it, it made me think more than a few times on why I have chosen this hobby, and why I continue to engage in it despite the frustrations and expense. I have found that it helped me clarify what it is that I do as a WWII re-enactor.

The book is fair and even sided. Which means that it explains the value and purpose of our hobby as well as pointing out its problems. Unfortunately for Ms. Thompson the publisher decided to quote for the cover notes, the few university "Egg head" types that think what we do is silly because when they were kids, they never got invited to play army with the other kids on the block. Those liner notes DO NOT represent the work she has created.

The book addresses many of the major topics of the hobby. Our fixation with authenticity and our compromises; How we "honor the vets" but get annoyed when they tell us we are doing it wrong; How wrapped up some of us get in the hobby, and how some of us do not take it serious enough. For me as a re-enactor the book was filled with descriptions that made me nod my head and smile. A few times I laughed outright.

Jenny Thompson did it right. She became a reenactor and asked the tough questions. This book nails us to a tee. But in doing so, Jenny looked deep into herself as well. Reading the book, is at times, a look in the mirror, and it has made re-enacting clearer to me. I will never look at our hobby the same now that the details have been so perfectly pointed out. And now I am so aware of those moments when we say, "we're here. We're there. This is it" (read the book and you will know what I mean by this)

I recommend this book to you all.

Jonathan Krieger
[..]

She Just Doesn't Get It
I was asked to read this by a fellow reenactor (yes, I am a female WWII reenactor) and we have passed it around our little group for discussion. I know some of these other reviewers are also reenactors, and I am a little surprised that they rated this so high.

Yes, it is "interesting" mostly because we are very much an invisible part of society. But attending 2 reenactments a year, in the same 2 places is not representative of the hobby or its members.

Jenny Thompson is neither historian nor reenactor. The University system-created "ethnography" major she sports no more makes her qualified than my cat. But I will give my reasons for why I take issue with this book.

First, she never gets past the staid and boring academics' "need" to dote on the "social, economic and political causes and effects" of WWII (p. 109). Give me a break! Those are the things that have given history the bad rep of being "boring." You have to know the background in this of course, but Real People want something to tangibly relate to -- the humanity of war -- and that's what reenactors provide. (explained on p. 160). Interviewed reenactors get it across eloquently about the lack of education in both the public and among academics and school teachers (p. 91).

The only reason I gave this book 2 stars is the reenator acccounts. They are genuine and I can relate to them. They are entertaining -- but just as I was really getting into the real reasons we reenact by the real people who do it -- Jenny Thompson intrudes and ruins the tone by saying she finds it "disturbing." She was the most disturbed person in this book all the way through. That's her favorite word. I'd like to run it through the computer for the number of times she used this word. Unfortunately there are no women interviewed. And I have talked with women reenactors who said they spoke with her during her interviewing and thesis work, but they didn't say what she wanted to hear.

Her "quotes" from unknown scholars (and I'm pretty well read) and unnamed National Park Personel show what a narrow and critical audience she knows. I have participated at many NPS sites. Reenactors draw crowds to some places where these Rangers would hardly see a visitor otherwise. And some of these Rangers are wrong in their information. Many times she uses vague references to whatever critics she is depending on to carry her argument as "people" or "those who". Not very scholarly, Jenny! And as for her remarks about Reenactors knowledge -- most reenactors I know only read primary sources, and scrutinize historians' agendas when their work is not heavey on primary sources. Her accusation about the desire to "own" history is wrong. That implies not sharing, and the very opposite of what we do.

I agree also with the reviewer who points out how dated this book is, with references to the Oklahoma bombing and Waco. (p. 170).

Regarding female reenactors and her assessment (p. 79): She's wrong that women are not interested in war! The main problems with women reenactors and their participation are the limited roles women played historically, and also our modern lifestyles. Women with small children can't take them on tacticals. Jenny's just too overfeminist to strike a balance or understanding.

The book gets very repetitive. Chapter 10 is virtually the same material as Chapters 5 and 8. Somehow around every 3 chapters she gets back to being puzzled why anyone does WWII Germans. Talk to a few German-Americans.

For Readers who hoped this book would answer their questions: My suggestion is to just seek out some reenactors and ask them yourself why we reenact! I assure you there will be many different answers. But I think all reenactors will agree that "reenacting" isn't something in our intellect. It's in our soul. And Jenny Thompson never will "get it."