One of my history profs is a great guy who asks interesting questions, and he has made me begin to think like a historian. Presumtious though that may sound, when I'm reading history books, I'm starting to make links in my head.

There are two things that keep circling around in my head as I read: racism and the pure cyclical quality of history. Looking at the Boxer rebellion for example, in the years leading up to it, the US had strict immigration laws that made it impossible for someone from China to immigrate to the States, unless they could prove that they were somehow inferior to the 'white man'. Writers described them as having a 'fiendish love of cruelty' and a 'devilish cunning'. Anyone who knows anything about the ways that the Jews were persecuted in Nazi Germany knows that these are some of the same phrases used by Hitler to describe the Jewish population. Sickening. History keeps repeating itself. When does it end? Where?