The humanities and war
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As reenactors don the blue and the gray to commemorate the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, young men and women dressed in fatigues are locked in combat half a world away under the flag of a nation that was reshaped by that 19th century conflict. And as hundreds of writers have grappled with the meaning of the War Between the States, hundreds more will try to wrest some sense from the contemporary violence in the Middle East, just as authors have tried to explain war since the time of Homer. But can we fully grasp the reality experienced by the combatants in Iraq or Afghanistan any better than we do the sacrifices made on the plains of Troy? Do the Civil War reenactors, clad in their painstakingly replicated uniforms, fully embrace the meaning of the conflict that they play out for enthusiastic spectators? And what is the role of the writer...