That history is written by the victors is another way of saying it is written by those with power. It is often, at least initially, dictated by the world’s oppressors. While history provides irreplaceable context for our present, it’s also at times revered with a degree of nostalgic lubricant that molds into the shapes that best fit our desired narrative.
I became fascinated by reenactments for all these reasons when I was sent to cover several during my first newspaper job. I saw a community of obsessively fervent history enthusiasts enveloped in a culture that carries flavors of traveling theater troupes and of old; one history packaged within another. In 2017, I drove across the state of Montana to scope out a re-enactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn in the southeast corner of the state. It was the first I’d heard of no
