Jenny Thompson




Published in August 2006. My Hut: A Memoir of a YMCA Volunteer in World War One by William C. Levere. Edited by Jenny Thompson.



About War Games:

“Thompson writes with the eye of an ethnographer, the ear of a novelist, and the voice of a pop singer with a feel for a groove. War Games showcases a bona fide democratic approach to history--with all that implies. Along the way, we're reminded how much our notions of the past inform the way we live now.”
-- JIM CULLEN, author of The Civil War in Popular Culture and The American Dream.


"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." --Publishers Weekly

Captured Germans, World War I Private Battle

**Starred Review** in Booklist


World War II Eastern Front Battle

D-Day Reenactment, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 1994

"What I found to be so interesting about this book is that it is the first time that I have ever come across a book that discusses the motivations of what must be a decent percentage of the American male population that is fascinated by the many facets of war. As one of these people, on an intellectual basis, I know that war is a tragedy and that I would never want to participate in a war. Nevertheless, I am fascinated by military history and war's material culture. Although I am not a Twentieth Century reenactor, this book nevertheless still spoke to me."

--Marco Antonio Abarca's review from Amazon.com


World War One reenactment

July 2010: War Games is Now in Paperback!

Why do thousands of Americans spend their leisure time waging mock combat? How does America's long history of warfare impact its citizens? What does it mean to reenact war "authentically"? War Games explores these and many other questions as it takes readers into the heart of an American subculture whose thousands of members dress as GIs, Nazis, and the grunts of Vietnam and fight with each other over the many meanings of American wars.

Overview of War Games

As the United States fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it might come as a surprise to some people to learn that on any given weekend there are thousands of Americans who dress in uniforms, join their units, and come together to fight the wars of the past. While Civil War reenactments are well known, reenactments of more recent wars, including World War II and Vietnam, are far less known to the public. In War Games, author Jenny Thompson takes readers on a hilarious, strange, and thought-provoking journey into this unique subculture.

Based on Thompson's interviews with reenactors, survey data, and seven years of fieldwork--Thompson donned uniforms and joined up with several units to find out for herself what reenacting was all about--War Games tells the stories of thousands of ordinary Americans, mostly men, who make war their hobby. From engaging in trench warfare in Pennsylvania to reenacting D-Day on Virginia Beach, Virginia, these reenactors celebrate, remember, and represent war by meticulously recreating the experiences of the common soldiers of World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War.

The author recounts her own experiences reenacting as she takes readers into the guarded settings of the reenactors’ private battles. Here, reenactors join with their official units to dress in period uniform and assume their roles as American GIs, Nazi officers, and French resistance fighters. Prisoner interrogations, ambushes, trench raids, and mail call, as well as camaraderie and hilarity, are all par for the course in these weekend getaways. War Games also follows reenactors into the public spotlight where they march in parades, perform mock battles, teach the public about war, and defend themselves and their pastime.

War Games not only shows what it’s like to reenact, but it also explains what reenacting means. In clear prose, it delves into the reenactors’ group identity, exploring their motivations and experiences, as well as the ways they actually use and understand history. It examines the reenactors’ interactions with the public, veterans, and each other, and their opinions on a range of issues, from the media’s portrayal of war to contemporary politics. It investigates their near obsession with the all-important concept of “authenticity,” and lays out their private debates over issues ranging from overweight reenactors to the propriety of reenacting as World War II German soldiers. Ultimately, War Games unravels the meanings behind this decidedly odd pastime to show how these reenactors use their hobby to grapple with issues related to their everyday lives.

Not only does the book investigate how America’s legacy of war affects the lives of thousands of ordinary Americans, it also addresses issues related to the meanings of war, violence, and masculinity. In the end, War Games reveals just how powerful the war experience is--even for those who have never experienced it first hand.

“This strange, enthralling book on 20th-century war re-enactors becomes a wonderful case study on the power of history in our lives: history as a sort of Grail quest, history as fetish, history as reality itself. Thompson's reporting on these quarrelsome and oddly self-loathing people is exhaustive. Her analyses of the meaning of memory to them and, ultimately, to all of us, can have a meta-leveled precision that recalls the methodology of Proust.”

--Henry Allen, Author of What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.


“Thompson's wholly admirable study of the reenactors of twentieth-century wars focuses on the World War II contingent. . . 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."

**Starred Review**

--Roland Green. BOOKLIST Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.