JACK EMERIAN: Civil War Revisited connects us to our history

Published online on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009

This year's Civil War Revisited event seems to have once again sparked a debate, in these pages, about why a local organization would revisit a period in American history -- a period that included a war fought on the other side of the continent almost 150 years ago.

Perhaps a comment by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says it best: "I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America, you have to know about the Civil War."

For the past 20 years, thousands have come to Kearney Park to catch a glimpse of our nation in the mid-19th century -- America during its Civil War. Some find it meaningful to re-enact -- to portray a historic figure, take on the persona of an "ordinary citizen," or depict the life of a soldier. Some come to interact with these performers and take in the look and the feel of the 1860s. Others come to ride horses, shoot guns, and fire off cannons.

But for participant and observer alike it's really all about the same thing: connecting with our past.

There's something compelling about connecting with history -- about discovering ways that our lives have been shaped by those in our past. The fact is, history has a hold on us. We've all been shaped and changed by people we know -- parents, teachers, friends, colleagues -- as well as by people we've never met.

"How can we not want to know about the people who have made it possible for us to live as we live, to have the freedoms we have, to be citizens of this greatest of countries in all time?" writes American historian David McCullough. "It's not just a birthright, it is something that others struggled for, strived for, often suffered for, often were defeated for and died for, for us, for the next generation."

So why do we bring the Civil War to Fresno? Because we have found the living history format to be a remarkably engaging way to help us all connect with America's past ... our past.

Because it's important our youth get to know people who helped shape their country and begin to understand how their country works. It's been interesting over the years, watching students discover that what we all call "history" is really the story of people's lives.

As we examine those lives and learn from both the mistakes and successes of people, as well as entire communities, we find that history is full of ideas, guidance, encouragement, perspective ... and connections.

So when students come to the Civil War event and talk with Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman about emancipation, we encourage them to go home and ask their grandparents or an elder neighbor about their experiences fighting for freedom or watching others fight for it.

When they explore a Civil War-era civilian encampment, we encourage them to think about how young people's everyday lives in the 1860s were so different from their lives, and how some challenges of living together as a society never change.

We do this because for those of us who stage the event, the Civil War Revisited is not about war but about what children learn from living history, stepping back in time and putting themselves in someone else's shoes. As one who grew up and attended schools in Fresno, the Civil War was a small part of our history education. What better way to tell this important story than through this extraordinary three-day event!

Thanks to the generosity and support of hundreds of volunteers and sponsors, what began as a modest endeavor 20 years ago has developed into an American history class for thousands. We invite you to come and explore with us this pivotal chapter in the American experience. We invite you to connect with history. See you next fall!