As a secondary school teacher I see value in living history that is well done—that is, guided by research and adhering to known historical evidence. Plimoth Plantation is perhaps the best in the U.S. in this regard, although there are other good examples. Permanent sites have to balance historicity with tourist appeal, which is hard to do well. As for reenactments, well, I can see the appeal, and I know that some people really get into this, but I think the historical consistency is pretty hard to maintain. It’s kind of interesting to visit historic sites when there is a re-enactor gathering, however, just to get a sense of what things might have looked like (on sunny days when everyone was clean, anyhow).