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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Thompson, Jenny Christina. "Common Soldiers: An Ethnography of Twentieth-Century War Reenactors," American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, October 1999.
This dissertation documents the practices and explores the belief systems of World War I and World War II reenactors in the United States. Through the use of ethnographic research, including participant/observation field work, interviews, and survey data, it provides an in-depth, “insider’s” view of what reenactors refer to as “the hobby.” It attempts to delineated the effects of history, and more particularly war, on one group of contemporary Americans and to map the heretofore undocumented territory of this ritualized practice. The study includes an overview of the history of reenacting in the United States, explores the difference between the reenactors’ public and private portrayals of war and provides demographic data on reenactors. By offering insight into “the hobby” from an insider’s point of view the study enables outsiders to understand reenacting as an experience as well as a cultural phenomenon. It also takes issue with some scholarly arguments concerning the relative lack of value of “living history” and shows how members of this largely white, male group use reenacting to negotiate issues related to their identities as individuals and as contemporary Americans.
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