My interest in history was shaped early reading ceaselessly through my Random House Children's Encyclopedia. Works by Fernand Braudel, David Herbert Donald, Bruce Levine and most recently John Hersey and Martin Sherwin (whose class I took this past semester) have stood out among the texts I have read in classes and for personal fulfillment. My hopes and plans for historical research focus on various areas and aspects of the Cold War. I have limited experience blogging for pleasure, mostly about politics and sports, over the past ten years.