Why history?

After seeing the movie “Sink the Bismarck” when I was four years old, I have always had an interest in military history. Within a few years of watching the movie, I began reading about the 20th Century’s two terrible World Wars, and having been fortunate to have my parents’ encouragement in the development of my reading and writing skills, I have continued that practice to this day. However my mother gave me another reason to be interested in history: Since I was little my mother would often tell me stories about her Second World War experiences, and hearing these adventures would just whet my appetite for more. MeeMee told me of having been saved by the Germans, and of course I approached my new interest from that angle. Soon I was wondering how Germany came so close to winning two World Wars while fighting with a huge numerical disadvantage. Since my parent’s best friends were Jewish, I never really looked into the Holocaust and instead just concentrated on the battles and the military and diplomatic campaigns. I became really right-wing in public school (I did an interest talk on the First World War German light cruiser Emden in Grade 5) and this trend accelerated as I progressed to my later years at Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa. I was fortunate in having excellent, understanding and patient History teachers, and even more fortunate in having classmates who accepted me despite my somewhat insane semi-Fascist views. While I dropped these views as I focused on music after high school, I never stopped reading history, and when my studies at the Music Program at Concordia didn’t agree with me, I transferred to the History Department in 1992. There I was fortunate to meet two teachers that would change my life; Professors Rosemarie Schade and Martin Singer. Martin taught me how to write well, and Rosemarie taught me to question my own assumptions. Together they brought me further than any teachers had before or since, and I will be forever in their debt for the time they took to bring out the best in me.