Book Review: The Routledge Handbook of Reenactment Studies by Agnew, Lamb and Tomann (eds)

Abstract

Re-enactment studies are booming, just like re-enactment, living history and role play are. This handbook, therefore, is a good introduction for those interested in the more academic aspects of re-enactment. However, as is often the case with an academic-only approach, this book is not meant for those interested in the backgrounds of re-enactment per se. The authors are academics, writing for their peers; there are hardly any practitioners involved. The whole book feels like we are reading the reports of cultural anthropologists who have done a bit of fieldwork. The History of the Field (Otto), for example, is a history of the academic approach, not of re-enactment itself. This book is an aid to academic re-enactment studies programs, but does not support the emancipation or professionalisation of re-enactment itself.

Keywords

• living history
• newest era
• interpretation