Free Republic

...Bill Darron drove down the alley behind Laura Hillenbrand’s house (with) a Norden bombsight. Since 1987, Hillenbrand has been sick with chronic fatigue syndrome, which has mostly confined her indoors for the last quarter century. When she explained this to Darron, he agreed to bring the Norden from New Jersey on his next visit to Washington. Now, as he made the final calibrations, Hillenbrand returned to the room, and he offered her a brief tutorial. He showed her how to position herself above the monocular eyepiece, guide the cross hairs toward a target on the map, then lock the sight...

First, stop reading this, run to your nearest bookstore, buy Laura Hillenbrand’s latest epic biography Unbroken, and start reading that. Still here? Well OK then… I first had this thought, that history is best-learned when it is personalized, while watching Ken Burn’s series about the Civil War on PBS. I’m sure that my experience was shared by millions of others. We watched and learned more about Civil War History in a few hours than we learned after years and years of stifling public schooling.

Laura Hillenbrand reached the No. 1 best-seller spot with her first book, "Seabiscuit." Her new book, "Unbroken," is another best-selling forgotten tale of American history. Instead of a racehorse, the lead character of this book is a man. Louis Zamperini leaves his troubled childhood behind, growing into an Olympic runner who hopes to break the 4-minute mile in the 1940 Games. But the Games are cancelled when the world starts to fall apart. Zamperini ends up serving as a bombardier on a B-24 in the Pacific Theater. When his bomber ditches in the ocean, he floats a thousand miles on...