This resonates with me

[Anita]

https://bookriot.com/2019/03/15/why-i...

[Susie]

It does with me to an extent too. I don’t know if I would say I will never read anything WWII again, but it would have to be pretty exceptional to draw me in.

[Tracy]

I burned out on WWII fiction a while ago...at least the books from authors who weren’t there. It’s really not a time period to romanticize, IMO.

[Susie]

For me it’s also that I have read quite a few exceptional WWII novels and I feel as though they would be hard to top. I’ll admit to being sceptical about The Tattooist of Auschwitz and I ended up finding it raw and compelling.

[Nicole R]

I have noticed a huge surge in WWII historical fiction as well. But, I still very much enjoy the genre even though I feel many of the recent books I have read to fall short of exceptional.

I do think there has been a fair amount of desensitization/romanticization of WWII, which I find troublesome. But, many of the books I have read lately have been fictionalization of real life women who worked to fight against German and Hitler. I am a sucker for historical fiction of any time period that finally give women their due.

We learn so much in school about the atrocities of WWII, and that is absolutely critical to learn. And I read plenty of nonfiction and historical fiction that focus on the devastation. BUT, I think it is critical to learn about the people who worked to oppose these atrocities as well. It is important to remember that brave people stood up against impossible odds and made a difference.

We all known implicitly what these individuals were fighting against without it being detailed every single time. And, in all honesty, we know more about the horror of the concentration camps and ghettos than the brave characters likely did in real life!

I look at the world today and the things that are happening, and we need people to continue to stand up. So reading historical fiction that instills and fosters that bravery is important.

But I do think that the historical fiction books just set willy nilly in a nondescript WWII era may be doing more harm by romanticizing than good by education.

[Amy]

Doesn’t resonate with me at all! I still enjoy a ton of WW2 books. I just have to space them out, and I don’t read them all. I try to be selective. What I cannot and do not read about is abuse, unless it’s accidental to the book I picked up, but I’m not choosing it - or the sickness and death of children. I stay away from kidnapping, war in general, Alzheimer’s, lost legs or Limbs. Bipolar, I avoid. Also therapists who are targeted. All these I avoid like the plague. Holocaust and WW2. Now that feels tame and interesting by comparison. But what compels me, isn’t the mind of the serial killer or nazi, or the capacity for atrocity. What compels me is the stories of resilience, of narrow escape, the righteous gentiles who risked everything to save lives and be on the side of humanity. Best example: The Zookeepers Wife, which I was taken by. People finding each other after the war. The humanity in us. That’s what speaks to me.

[Joanne]

I am in the group with Amy and Nicole, I enjoy a lot of these books. However, there are way too many out there and I am careful and thoughtful about those I do read

[Theresa]

I have never been particularly drawn to WWII era historical writing, prefering older, more distant, historical periods. Some of my aversion is no doubt the result of actually having known WWII veterans, from having a father who did not join up because as a farmer he was deemed necessary to provide food and thus what we would call 4F, from growing up with the first generation born to survivors, from having Jewish neighbors and clients who were survivors. WWII was the recent past in my life and not something I wanted to read about.

For a long time my historical interest ended with the onset of WWI and the end of the The Gilded Age! Well except for espionage. But some years ago that broadened, helped in no small part by the historical mysteries by Alan Furst. His work is well researched but more importantly for me, he captures the voice of the time. From there I read others: The Nightingale, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Zookeeper's Wife, to name a few.

But now I feel much like the author of the link; there are just too many! I read so many excellent ones it seems since 2016, but enough is enough. I find myself skipping over and even actively removing from my TBR books set in WWII because I just don't want to read about it any more.

What the link made me realize is the real reason I have become so averse: they all seem to be only slight variations on each other. So even if well-done, there is nothing new or fresh. I can still be lured into a good WWII espionage or mystery, but those are different than historical fiction.

[Booknblues]

Thank you, Nicole and Amy for speaking so well for me.

Yes, I do agree that there are many WWII books and not all of them are high quality, but there are still true stories which haven't been told, that show so much about the human spirit.

I do happen to have favorite eras in history which I like to read and pretty much will always read. WWII is one, but I am also interested in the civil war, westerns, American Colonial to the revolution, and medieval periods. Not all of the books from any of these periods are guaranteed to be good, but I will just about always read them when I find them.

I am somewhat more selective about WWII, because as noted in the article there is a glut of them and I do not want to read ones without merit.

[Anita]

Clearly most people are still enjoying these books because they keep churning them out, and there seems like bestsellers in this category each and every year.

I'm Jewish, and maybe I'm just tired of reading about about such a terrible period in Jewish history. Honestly, I think it just doesn't seem fresh to me anymore, no matter what twist on the period the author comes up with to share.

I would differentiate between actual real life stories (memoirs/history) versus fiction. The former I can still see being interested in reading (though I probably wouldn't be actively looking for books that fit the description). But I feel very done with fictional accounts.

[Joi]

The readers who continue to read WWII fiction for the suffering remind me a bit of the same people who continually want to know what’s going on in the mind of a serial killer. There is evil in the world that is unfathomable. We don’t need to rehash it over and over.

I feel personally attacked. I love true crime! Lol.

All joking aside, there are so many WWII books out there. I like to follow the "weed them out" system. Where I wait until at least 2-3 people here on PBT have read the book, then base if I will read it on that. I don't mind still reading WWII fiction, but there is definitely a pull to read ones that have a "fresh take" or "different look" that I am unfamiliar with and might mate that book more appealing.

[Anita]

Joi wrote: "The readers who continue to read WWII fiction for the suffering remind me a bit of the same people who continually want to know what’s going on in the mind of a serial killer. There is evil in the ..."

Ha ha, I love true crime too, Joi. I don't think people who read books about WWII are somehow voyeuristic about the atrocities as slightly implied in the article. But I do just think it is a lot of authors piling on to sell books because in the past, some very good books have sold very well. I think it keeps authors from looking at writing about other periods, and to me, that's unfortunate.

[Theresa]

Anita - I'd probably blame the publishers more -- as it is not the authors who ultimately decide what gets published when, but the publishers. Who are without a doubt jumping on bandwagons with all 4 feet. Or whatever LOL. And in fact a lot of editors suggest topics to their authors - it's a joint discussion and decision, especially for genre writers.

I think with authors it also is a result of the availability of material for research that was not necessarily available before -- unsealed records, increased scholarly writing and the amount of WWII oral history that has been made available, something that grew exponentially as a result of the mission of many museums and organizations like The Intrepid Air and Space Museum. Plus in the last 25 to 30 years, 2 major holocaust museums opened --in DC and NYC, which made enormous amounts of information available. These books were not researched and written in a year or even two, but over a span of time. Many of these authors were writing these books at the same time -- how else were they all published within such a short time span. And that's where the publishers come into play.

That's my thoughts. I will continue my moratorium on WWII books - but I still have 2 or 3 in my TBR pillars that will get read sooner than later. Probably after a bout of cozies or regency romances.

[Anita]

Great points, Theresa! That makes sense to me . . ..

[[deleted user]]

I can't explain why I love WWII book but I cannot get enough of them. I think for me personally it is a little piece of my family's history even though the stories are not about them. If this makes any sense at all. That being said, there have been so many lately. There have been some that I love so much and there have been a few others that I have been really disappointed in.
For me, I think the stories are important. And when I read the statistics of how little people actually know of that time period I don't think we can have too many books. I do have to do some spacing when I read them as they are heavy.

[Joanne]

Rachel wrote: "I can't explain why I love WWII book but I cannot get enough of them. I think for me personally it is a little piece of my family's history even though the stories are not about them. If this makes..."

I think (I hope anyway) the onslaught of this subject may be directed at young people like my daughter-So unfortunate that her school years mandated only 9th and 11 grade history-anything more was an elective! I tried to get her to take more, but no go-Now that she is older and wiser(sometimes😏) She see's things and ask "Why did I not learn about this in school....." Any good books on the subject I read, I pass on to her-especially those on the Holocaust. I have told her a number of times how those who lived through it are aging, and it is her generations job to ensure it is never forgotten.

[Jgrace]

There's no lack of formulaic writing set in WW2. I do tire of that sometimes. I object to the exploitation of global tragedy as a marketing strategy, but I'm sure that I've fallen for it on many occasions.

But, I doubt that I will ever stop reading books set in either of the world wars. The global impact of both wars means that there are endless different viewpoints to be explored. Cases in point:White Chrysanthemum- Korea, The Glass Palace - Burma, The Garden of Evening Mists- Malaya.

I remember needing to memorize and map significant WW2 European battles in high school history. It seemed important. I had a great uncle who died at the Battle of the Bulge. I had another who was at Pearl Harbour on the day of the attack, but that attack and Hiroshima were all that was covered of the war in the Pacific in my High School overview.

I didn't study history beyond high school. If I wasn't reading historical fiction, I'd know so little of the war's impact beyond my own family and the patriotic bias of a general education.

[[deleted user]]

Joanne wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I can't explain why I love WWII book but I cannot get enough of them. I think for me personally it is a little piece of my family's history even though the stories are not about them..."

My kids know so much about this time period because I homeschooled them. I love that you pass this along to your daughter. Recent statistics broke down what the younger generation knows about WWII and the Holocaust and it was haunting to me. Two-third of millennials have not heard of Auschwitz. But hold on to your seat because it gets worse. Forty-one percent of Americans could not identify Auschwitz. What is frightening to me is that this is one of the most well-known camps, so imagine how many do not know of the others.

[[deleted user]]

Jgrace wrote: "There's no lack of formulaic writing set in WW2. I do tire of that sometimes. I object to the exploitation of global tragedy as a marketing strategy, but I'm sure that I've fallen for it on many oc..."
I am reading The Calligrapher's Daughter right now and I am learning so much of this area that I did not know. In fact, it has peaked my curiosity enough that I will now explore this even deeper.

[Amy]

Rachel, your statistics are frightening and true!

Was wondering when you were going to start Horizons! What an interesting and neat community that we care about everyone else taking part in the challenges as much as we do our own.

[Barbara M]

Nicole and Amy said exactly what I was thinking and Theresa made an excellent point about the availability of new records.

I am a child of the end of WWII and have always been fascinated by the time. My father served and met my mother as a pen pal since she was the younger sister of her brother, and they served together in the European theater. My other uncle was in the Pacific. I have heard stories of the homefront in American through my mother's reminiscences. I also got my undergrad degree in History.

What I love is finding out about the small hidden strengths in people in other parts of the world during that time. I'm not surprised it is romanticized here in the US since the war never came to our shores with any strength - it was fought elsewhere. That is why I want to hear those other experiences.

[Joanne]

Barbara wrote: "Nicole and Amy said exactly what I was thinking and Theresa made an excellent point about the availability of new records.

I am a child of the end of WWII and have always been fascinated by the t..."

Barbara, what a coincidence-My mother met my father being his pen pal-her brother and my dad served together!

[Barbara M]

Joanne wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Nicole and Amy said exactly what I was thinking and Theresa made an excellent point about the availability of new records.

I am a child of the end of WWII and have always been fas..."

Cool! Again we have a connection.

[Theresa]

Rachel's statistics about the younger generations knowledge reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who is a history professor. On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were discussing his own work and the experience of teaching 18 to 22 year olds these days, he mentioned how few of them even know anything bout the Vietnam War. It's a very sad commentary on US education, isn't it?! Plus we now have the first students entering college who were born after 9/11 - what are they learning about that in school? Is the Korean War even taught or is their full knowledge of it from M*A*S*H reruns? Just what do you include in American History during the 9 months you may be teaching it to high school students? In my day, you spent a year in World History, another on American History, and another on European History. How is it divided up now? And what do you include or don't include?

And don't get me started on the fact that no one seems to have a clue about geography or civics or what used to be called social studies any more.

[Joanne]

Theresa wrote: "Rachel's statistics about the younger generations knowledge reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who is a history professor. On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were discussing his ..."

I am with you Theresa on the lack of Geo and Studies-it is horrifying what kids do not know......

[Holly R W]

I've been following this discussion and have read everyone's comments. I myself tend to shy away from reading about World War II and especially, the Holocaust. In my case, it's because I identify so personally and am horrified by the massacre and torture that went on. That said, in recent years, I have read two excellent books about it.
I am 62 years old. I've known Holocaust survivors personally and their families. Leatrice Rabinsky, my high school English teacher, was one of the first Holocaust education teachers here (I live in Ohio, U.S.) She developed a Holocaust course that students could elect to take. They read, they talked to survivors and then went to Europe and visited concentration camp sites. Ultimately, Mrs. Rabinsky branched out beyond the school and talked with other student groups around the city. She always went with Holocaust survivors who shared their experiences. She is no longer living, but look at the impact she had on so many.

[Amy]

It states the obvious, but of course we all have cultures, experiences, family dynamics that hit home for us. That draws and repels our reading. It’s obvious I am Jewish, (any chance it wasn’t?) and of course that informs my life and reading lens. The thing about WW2, is that it’s a story for us all about humanity and genocide. But the thing on my mind these days, is how profound and misunderstood and misattributed antisemitism is today! I worry deeply that history repeats itself profoundly without discernment, and we are in a time where our discernment is cloudy. Rhetoric is everything, and those who want to harm the Jews are using it well. And to get political, playing the victim or marginalized angle - which the Jews respond to with passion and to their detriment. Very confusing these days. So I think these novels are not just important, they have a place in reminding us the power of rhetoric over humanity. And what’s possible when we place humanity higher. Yes, I love this era and I feel connected to it’s resilience in spirit and faith.

[Amy]

Oh and AJ, the storyteller was in my top ten for Life! How I loved that book!

[Joanne]

Holly R W wrote: "I've been following this discussion and have read everyone's comments. I myself tend to shy away from reading about World War II and especially, the Holocaust. In my case, it's because I identify s..."

That is a fantastic story-How wonderful that the teacher was able to reach so many! Thanks for sharing.

[[deleted user]]

Amy wrote: "Rachel, your statistics are frightening and true!

Was wondering when you were going to start Horizons! What an interesting and neat community that we care about everyone else taking part in the c..."

I just realized I haven't posted that I started that yet.:) It appears that I am reading more books than I really am. One is always audio since I walk all the time. Often, I leave a book in currently reading status until I have time to write a review.

[[deleted user]]

AJ wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Rachel's statistics about the younger generations knowledge reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who is a history professor. On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were..."

Thank you for sharing. I wish history was taught differently. What I always hate to hear is how many people hate the subject because I deeply love it. I have always thought and will always think it is how it is taught. The best history teacher I ever had was in college. I learned more by listening to him than at any time in my life. And I went to college later in life. I learned so much of what I do know by my own self-education. But this professor brought history to life in his lectures and I learned pieces that I never knew. What he taught me, and how he taught will always stick with me.

[[deleted user]]

Amy wrote: "It states the obvious, but of course we all have cultures, experiences, family dynamics that hit home for us. That draws and repels our reading. It’s obvious I am Jewish, (any chance it wasn’t?) an..."

Amy, you spoke exactly what I feel.

[[deleted user]]

Amy wrote: "Rachel, your statistics are frightening and true!

Was wondering when you were going to start Horizons! What an interesting and neat community that we care about everyone else taking part in the c..."

Amy, I am not sure if you have visited Yad Vashem when you have been to Israel but I highly recommend it. It is raw and personal. I remember so many would not talk about their experiences, especially those who lived there. But so many of their experiences are written down, many in their own hand-writing. My grandparents and aunt wrote of their experience, as did my husband's parents. These are people who spoke little of it once they had settled in Israel. To read, in their own hand-writing what happened to them was so moving for me.

[Amy]

I have been to Yad VaShem! It’s incredibly powerful. But always strikes me about the situation with the Holocaust, is two things though. One is that it was 6 million Jews, but 12 million people. 6 million gays and gypsies and folks who were physically or mentally disabled. Armenian. The Muslims would have been next. Hispanics, whomever. The other thing that’s hugely misunderstood, is how many Jews died when They tried to go back to their homes. Programmes in Poland killed an astounding number of people trying to return. FDR turned away boatloads of people. Only Israel accepted these survivors. There was no safety anywhere. And it’s the survivors that build that little country, meant to be a place of peace and safety. And still the four countries surrounding them tried to eradicate them. Israel welcomed the Palestinians that were unwanted from the other Arab countries, who were also misplaced, and Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis live peacefully and happily together throughout much of Israel. The capital Tel Aviv Jaffa being the best example of this. Time after time the Israelis have gone into Gaza to try to help irrigate, make good structures, provide education, food, jobs, sustenance, the only people they’re keeping out of the ones with the bombs. And when the violence happens, every single person, Palestinian terrorist and Israeli victim or fighter alike, all end up at the same hospital, Haddassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where they are all treated equally by the Israeli medics and doctors. Most people don’t know that. Most people don’t know how hard is real works to provide education and training and schooling and irrigation and food for the Palestinian people so they can fight their terrorist leaders. That’s not what we hear. It’s not what Is spun. The is really government actually is run by a code of ethics. It doesn’t make them perfect. And the stupidity that’s going around, that to criticize Israel is to be anti-somatic is equally ridiculous. There’s much to criticize when it’s warranted. And some of it is. But again, World War II is a reminder of how easy it is to lose sight of what racism does, against anyone. And that as people all over the world we have to stand up against hatred and bigotry of all kinds and for safety. Second soapbox of the day. It’s just that I don’t think world war two is irrelevant. In the 1930’s Hannah Arens warmed us all about what happens with the decline/death of critical thinking and humanity. And it rings bells for me in the present. And I know as readers our discernment is somewhat more extensive and honed. And I dare say, it gives us an important edge. As Nicole says reading gives us compassion, but it also gives us knowledge, which also gives us the power of discernment. Soapbox over. But I guess I’ve shared what’s been on my mind. It normally stays out of my reviews.

[Joy D]

Amy wrote: "World War II is a reminder of how easy it is to lose sight of what racism does, against anyone. And that as people all over the world we have to stand up against hatred and bigotry of all kinds and for safety. "

Thank you, Amy, for sharing your views. I have been thinking on how to respond to this thread and your quote above sums it up.

As people who lived through WWII leave us, I believe it is up to the rest of us to keep history alive for our younger generations so what happened then will never happen again. I think the gist of the sentiment expressed in the article is that using WWII as a backdrop for an otherwise inane story is being overdone, and perhaps it is, but I think there are still very relevant and important stories to be told. An example is a book I read recently (The Ragged Edge of Night) where the author tells a story from her family history of what it was like for rural Germans and how small acts of resistance were important.

WWII was a time when people of the world came together at great sacrifice to defeat evil. As such, it's hard for me to ever think of giving up reading these stories. I also read non-fiction history and still watch documentaries of the period.

I was at a trivia contest recently where they asked the teams to write down the YEAR that WWII ended. It astounded me that only a couple of teams were able to do so. The teams comprised solely of younger people did not know. How is this possible?

[Karin]

Theresa wrote: "Rachel's statistics about the younger generations knowledge reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who is a history professor. On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were discussing his ..."

The ignorance starts in school! Sad, but true.

This isn't new and has been happening over time and starts in school. When I used to homeschool, I followed BOTH liberal and conservative homeschool groups and advocates to follow along with changes in education and possible changes to homeschooling rights (I believe in freedom of choice for education as public education at the elementary level was not only a poor fit for my eldest, would have been a poor fit in different ways for my other two.) One of the earlier American books on this, written by a former school teacher, is Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, but no doubt there are others out there as well-this one was quoted a lot when I was first starting out back in 2003 (my kids all later chose public high school and by then it was their choice but watched over by my husband and I to see how well it worked for them, etc).

In Massachusetts, the VoTech school programs got watered down with mandated state testing, the MCAS, which came out somewhere around the turn of the century when my eldest was in first or second grade--I met an electrician who quit teaching at the local one. He said that before the test, students in the program could have enough hours to test to become electricians and pointed out how students who struggled in the sciences suddenly found themselves learning and undersatnding it as it applied to their fields, etc.

Each of the two federal administrations before the current one made it sound good, but overall brought it down. First the "No Child Left Behind" act ensured that many academically strong children were made to slow down, and then the later one under the Obama administration meant that Massachusetts had to LOWER its educational standards again in order to continue getting federal money for education, even though they already had plenty of levels of classes in high school to serve different needs. The first year this was in place my middle daughter's math teacher told the class she wished she'd saved her old textbooks because the new ones were dragged down academically due to the rules, and my son saw this sort of thing in his classes. Neither of them did honours math at these levels, either, because they didn't want to and neither was going to pursue a STEM field.

[Joi]

Theresa wrote: "On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were discussing his own work and the experience of teaching 18 to 22 year olds these days, he mentioned how few of them even know anything bout the Vietnam War. "

Piggybacking on this conversation. While I'm definitely older than 22, when I was in high school- we mainly focused on American/US History, and European History- AKA lots of dead white dudes. Two whole years were spent focusing on US/European, leaving the other two years for "everything else". I distinctly remember freshman year learning about WWII- history classes and English classes all tied themes together, learning about WWII in history, and reading Night in English class.

I'm sure there were small tidbits on Asian history, but I remember even in high school being surprised that the Vietnam War, Korean War, were not touched on a lot. We learned about Genghis Khan, but mainly "world history" was limited to focused studies that you would do on your own.
I found this curriculum for my IB history program, and thought it was interesting.

1. Society and economy (750–1400)
2. Causes and effects of medieval wars (750–
1500)
3. Dynasties and rulers (750–1500)
4. Societies in transition (1400–1700)
5. Early Modern states (1450–1789)
6. Causes and effects of Early Modern wars
(1500–1750)
7. Origins, development and impact of industrialization (1750–2005)
8. Independence movements (1800–2000)
9. Evolution and development of democratic
states (1848–2000)
10. Authoritarian states (20th century)
11. Causes and effects of 20th-century wars
12. The Cold War: Superpower tensions and
rivalries (20th century)

[Karin]

Joi wrote: "Theresa wrote: "On a visit a couple of years ago, as we were discussing his own work and the experience of teaching 18 to 22 year olds these days, he mentioned how few of them even know anything bo..."

Joi--this isn't new.

BUT, having grown up during the Vietnam War years, I am shocked at how little most young people know about it.

[NancyJ]

I'm starting to become more shocked about RECENT history that we know little about, with other genocides, racial cleansings, and forced relocations. I feel like I have a better understanding of what happened in WWII (and now Korea), than I do about Syria or South America. Not to mention Darfur, Bosnia, etc.

World War II Europe has become a comfortable (almost lazy) setting for writers and readers. We have a shared context overall, and we understand the roles - the good guys, bad guys, and victims. Many different types of stories can be inserted somewhere in this shared schema, without requiring a lot of difficult research.

Readers like these stories because we're the good guys. In WWII stories, we usually root for the resistance or the rescuers, not the occupiers. So if we read about Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, etc. who do we root for?

Most of my Horizons books this year showed that there were and still ARE atrocities committed by other countries or groups as well. The Japanese enslaved thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves, and required Korean men to risk their lives fighting for Japan. Isis related groups (Daesch) have killed men and enslaved women in Iraq and Syria, and this is still going on.

[NancyJ]

I too learn a lot more about history by reading historical fiction than I learned in school. The interesting thing is how much history has "changed" since I left school. As more voices are allowed to be heard, we learn other perspectives. So in the US this means facing uncomfortable truths about Columbus and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans.

[Amy]

Right on, Nancy! But the more I study for world history with my 10th grader, the more I see how imperialism took over so much of the world! That all of us, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, we all thought we had rights to take over all kinds of countries and islands and territories. We even fought in other countries for who got these spaces. And in our desire to separate from England we took over the Native Americans. Back then, everyone thought they had the right to just take over all kinds of indigenous people. It’s amazing to sort of learn about the stuff again as an adult! Even the chess game that was World War I was so fascinating for me to learn, or re-learn that is!

[LibraryCin]

Joy D wrote: "I was at a trivia contest recently where they asked the teams to write down the YEAR that WWII ended. It astounded me that only a couple of teams were able to do so. The teams comprised solely of younger people did not know. How is this possible? ..."

Wow, that's quite horrifying. :-(

[[deleted user]]

Amy wrote: "I have been to Yad VaShem! It’s incredibly powerful. But always strikes me about the situation with the Holocaust, is two things though. One is that it was 6 million Jews, but 12 million people. 6 ..."

Amy, you could not have stated any of this better.:)

[[deleted user]]

NancyJ wrote: "I'm starting to become more shocked about RECENT history that we know little about, with other genocides, racial cleansings, and forced relocations. I feel like I have a better understanding of wha..."

Nancy, just reading The Calligrapher's Daugther I learned so much about Korea and what happened. I do know of quite a bit, but this book made it so personal.

[Nicole D.]

I still like to read about WWII and I absolutely want to know what's going on the mind of a serial killer!

[Karin]

NancyJ wrote: "I'm starting to become more shocked about RECENT history that we know little about, with other genocides, racial cleansings, and forced relocations. I feel like I have a better understanding of wha..."

Yes, and it's not just history not being taught. How many people heard about the genocide of 6000 Christians, mostly women and children, in Nigeria last year? I just heard about it recently--why wasn't that plastering the news? It was different tribes, not black/white/brown/etc against each other.

The Rwandan racial genocide in the 1990s wasn't heard about over here much (if at all--I was having babies during the latter half of that decade and avoided the news when they were tiny).

[Karin]

Amy wrote: "Right on, Nancy! But the more I study for world history with my 10th grader, the more I see how imperialism took over so much of the world! That all of us, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, we all ..."

And this is very, very limited! When I homeschooled the world history book we read not only covered this later on, but we saw this over millennia--it happens over and over and over again. The Ottoman empire, the Roman empire, Chinese empires, the Aryans (not white people, by the way) in India and so many, many more.

Jingoists and power-mongers use whatever philosophy (Hitler was a eugenics proponent and that was behind more than just stuff with people) or religion they like and distort it even if it's inherently peaceful. I recently learned, and was shocked since I have a very peaceful image of this religion, from a woman born and raised in Japan, about how the Buddhists wiped out Christianity and forced those who were left into extreme secrecy. They not only killed Christians, but they threatened to kill EVERYONE in a family if someone was Christian, even if they were Buddhist. This is not the case today!