Muster is the blog of the scholarly Journal of the Civil War Era. An article this month includes a video of younger historians discussing a new book they are working on that looks at how the Civil War has been included in video games and computer games over the last four decades. From the days of Atari to Red Dead Redemption, the historians talk about what the games tried to achieve, what history is included and what is left out, and how game designers could move forward. This is not a “How accurate are video games” discussion. One advantage is that for most of the historians, who are all based at universities in the South, video games were an entry point into the study of the history of the war. Here are the folks in this informal roundtable:
Moderators:
- Dr. James “Trae” Welborn III, Associate Professor of History, Georgia College & State University
- Dr. Patrick A. Lewis, Director of Collections & Research, Filson Historical Society
Panelists:
- Dr. Katherine Brackett, Research Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
- Dr. Jonathan S. Jones, Assistant Professor of History, Virginia Military Institute
- Aaron Phillips, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Alabama
- Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson, Independent Scholar & Adjunct Instructor of History, Pierpont Community and Technical College (Fairmont, WV).
The book they are working on is called Playing at War: Identity & Memory in American Civil War Video Games from LSU Press. They hope to see it published in 2023. As of my writing this article, 38 people had watched it, let’s see if we can get that number up! The video is below.
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Thanks so much for re-posting here, Patrick. Always enjoy the content here, and welcome the chance to engage more scholars in this on-going conversation about the historical relevance of video games in understanding the American Civil War, its memories and legacies.
Interesting video.