Welcome to Stories of Freedom!
Welcome to Stories of Freedom!
I am Walter Tracinski. I am a freshman studying history in the Joint Degree Program at the College of William and Mary and the University of St. Andrews. I have been a history geek since age 8, and I hope to go on to academic history.
Why Stories of Freedom?
When I was very young, a couple books profoundly influenced me—The Iliad and The Odyssey; Peter Connolly’s Greece and Rome at War; The Lord of the Rings, and a little book called Stories of Freedom. This was the 1988 addition to the Childcraft Series. It is a children’s book, aimed for ages 8-14 (ish), published by the same company that (when it started in 1934) created the World Book Encyclopedia (another favourite book of mine). It tells the stories of 14 historical battles for freedom, from Ancient Egypt to the Battle of Britain. The image at the top of this post is from the book.
When I was in first grade, our class had a few of these Childcraft books in our small library, and my friends and I would read this one almost daily, reimagining the battles and trying to guess which side would win (just in case it had changed since the previous day).
Reading Stories of Freedom and Greece and Rome at War sparked my love of military history, and I have been a history nerd ever since.
What will Stories of Freedom be?
The goal is for this newsletter to focus on two things: history, with an emphasis on military and diplomatic history, and the Russo-Ukrainian war.
I will begin this blog by reviewing the 14 battles desscribed in Stories of Freedom, correcting the inaccuracies and simplifications, and telling the real story. I also want to dig deeper into the themes of the book and the historiographical changes that have happened since its publication.
After exploring Stories of Freedom, I have a few intentions for this blog. I plan to mostly write about whatever interesting topics I find in history, with a focus on military and diplomatic history and international relations. I will also spend a lot of time writing about the most important Story of Freedom today, the Russo-Ukrainian war. I have been closely following and researching the Russian invasion since it began, and I wrote my final year-long thesis paper for high school on what Europe could learn from it to deter future Russian aggression. Every once in a while I may look at other subjects, such as historical board games and occasionally pop-culture depictions of history. You can’t stop me from geeking out about The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek every once in a while.
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This newsletter is free, but I have started a GoFundMe to cover college expenses. I'm studying military history and international relations in the Joint Degree Program at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. I plan to become an academic historian, helping us better understand the fight for freedom around the world today. This GoFundMe is to raise money to help cover tuition, travel, and books—lots of books. Thanks for any support you can offer.