RIP Tony Horwitz

Last week, the journalistic and historical worlds lost Tony Horwitz unexpectedly.

I make note of this because his book Confederates in the Attic gave me a context with which to approach Civil War reenactments. On his exploits through all aspects of the South, he would ask a number of questions that began conversations and dialogue about a topic that is very complicated and faceted. All of the questions, as expected of a good journalist, were aimed at getting to know the person better, why they ended up where they were (for example, leading the Cats of the Confederacy).

My book review of Confederates in the Attic here.

The book was recommended to me shortly before I started visiting Civil War reenactments (and long before I began reenacting myself), but once I started interacting with weirdos who dressed up to voluntarily relive the Great Unpleasantness, I began asking them all sorts of questions that made me feel like a worthy successor to the late Mr. Horwitz. I felt like I was continuing the discussion he had begun so long ago in the mid 90s, and hopefully I was doing it with the same authenticity. What made it even better, I thought, was that so many of the people I spoke with referred to a particular chapter of Confederates in the Attic as a pretty accurate representation of what reenacting is like. The chapter is called The Civil Wargasm, and he and the book’s cover model, Robert Lee Hodge, visit what seems like every battlefield between Appomattox and Gettysburg in the space of about a week. (Summary: reenactors are weird.)

I never had the opportunity to meet the man but that’s ok. He’d probably enjoy the fact that his book had such an unexpected but moderately profound impact on me and all the other people I’ve then met along my historical and reenacting journeys. Now he’s got the opportunity to interview all the historical figures in the spiritual flesh, and I hope he’s in nerd heaven (in both the literal and figurative sense…).

A tribute from a New Yorker contributor

A tribute from a contributor to The Nation

Public History Done Fun

“In its simplest meaning, Public History refers to the employment of historians and the historical method outside of academia: in government, private corporations, the media, historical societies and museums, even in private practice.”

Public History: Its Origins, Nature, and Prospects, Robert Kelly

 

About once every quarter or so, I have an existential crisis of some severity in which I wonder if I made the right decision by not pursuing academia. The answer is usually yes; watching the education bubble inflate, with the number of history students exceeding history job openings, as well as the “publish or perish” mantra all reassure me that that’s something I’m ok without.

To assuage the academia FOMO*, I pursue history in other ways that, I think, prove history can be just as enjoyable outside of the ivory tower, if not more so. Whether that’s historical reenacting (lite, not hardcore), reading books, or staying up to date with historical scuttlebutt online, I keep my brain engaged, if not very organized.
*Fear Of Missing Out

I don’t claim to be a public historian, even by amateur standards, but in my travels across the internet, I have come across public history done many different ways by those of whom the ivory tower would probably disapprove. What follows are some of my favorites:

“The Allison Brothers of PA” by Jared Frederick of History Matters

Books! : Confederates in the Attic

The book. And the socks from my previous post.

I think it was a friend/coworker in college who recommended that I read this book because he knew my degree was in America history. When I finally did read it several years later, I saw why he thought I would like it.