The author of the article, in addition to being rude, needs to get a life. I've been both a reinactor (18th & 19th C.) and the director of institutions that hosted reinactments. These time-transvestites tend to take themselves entirely too seriously, and the bottom line is that these "re-created events" NEVER repeat NEVER even approach an accurate historical depiction of the period or event portrayed. Nor is it reasonable to expect they would.

Period materials are simply unavailable; yes, they can be approximated, but not cloned.The vast majority of "period reproductions" sold to reinactors are pure crap. People do not talk with appropriate accents/diction of one or two centuries ago. People are entirely too well-fed and healthy looking. Seen any reinactors witl smallpox scars lately? When walking through one of these "encampments", where is the stench and the filth? Do they smell like they haven't bathed for a month? What about the pit privies & the victims of camp diseases lying in their own vomit and excrement? What about those with wounds and amputations with pus-soaked, stinking bandages and suppurating sores in an era before antiseptics? What about the carnage of real warfare- how is a cowboys-and-indians "lawn war" supposed to accurately depict this? Get real. Someone who plays soldier [or camp follower or farmer or whatever] on weekends cannot hope to depict a mid-19th century (or other historical period) infantryman who LIVED the life of a soldier for years in the field. And so on. Some individuals do a better job of apeing the dress, customs, etc. of the period they supposedly represent, but none are at bottom truly accurate.

Despite all the hand-wringing and protestations of "Historical Accuracy", at the end of the day reinactments and reinactors are theme-park theater entertainment for the TV generation- not history. You want history, read a book, or visit a good museum or historic site exhibit- don't watch the video. Honest reinactors will tell you the same.