Seems to me the book in question was aimed at the reenacting market, not the
living history professional nor the museum staff market.
There are good reenactors and there are bad reenactors. It's a hobby for
them.
There are good living history professionals and there are bad living history
professionals. The bad ones we refer to simply as "unemployed."

If you do this for living you a have a much better idea of what is and what
is not appropriate in a public setting.
That debate was waged on the ALHFAM list last year and the general consensus
was, if I remember correctly, that deliberately avoiding period terms and
vocabulary out of fear of offending someone is no better than continuing to
spread myths of a sanitized 20th century view of the past. At the same time,
to use such language you must be prepared to educate the public before and
after as needed to the reasons why you included that language. And you must
be double certain that you are using that language in a period appropriate
manner. Not just using old or verboten words because "people spoke like that
back then."

As a  Jew I am not offended in the least by terms such as "cloth Jew." I
have a whole community full of obnoxious Hassidim down the road that seems
to live up to every "cheap Jew" stereotype there is. And they're rude to
boot.
But they're very eager to learn and to know and are a wonderful audience
when they're in you're world.


Scott D. Peters
Research Director/Archivist
Ocean County Historical Society
26 Hadley Ave., P.O. Box 2191
Toms River, NJ 08754-2191
(732) 341-1880
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"Telling the Stories of Ocean County"

Historically Speaking
ALHFAM -FPIPN vice-chair for trivia, errata and miscellany
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"The ordinary distinctions in society are often vague, and imply no just
pre-eminence: rank and titles are
adventitious things and instead of designating merit or virtue, are
frequently the baubles of imbecility, or
the sparkling decorations of meretricious pageantry"

William Griffith, on behalf, and by order of the New-Jersey Society for
promoting the gradual Abolition
of Slavery, Twelfth Month (December) 20th, 1803

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