"How it Really Was"

PhD candidate Christopher Knowles studies at Kings College in London, and keeps up a blog entitled "How it Really Was" where he writes periodically about his current research. In his most recent post, Knowles discusses the book Life in the Occupied Area by Katharine Tynan. The first sentence of his post reads, "Every now and then, in my research, I find somethings surprising and shocking." I really liked the way in which Knowles presented the information in the following pages simply because the content of the post revolved around the aspects of the book he found to be interesting, even "shocking", as opposed to simply writing about the historical accuracy of the work or a dry review of the work as a whole. Isn't this the kind of thing that sparks interest in historians and motivates further investigation and research into a particular subject? As an aspiring historian I think Knowles really has the right idea in that he is focusing on the aspects of his research that seem at odds with the rest of the information out there, things that are surprising, intriguing, and sometimes even new or unheard of. If he is attempting to find out as much as possible about one subject, which in his case happens to be the British occupation of Germany after WWII, then it is necessary to not only read the existing literature, but analyze it and even challenge it at times if that is where the research leads him. Overall, Knowles uses his blog to discuss aspects of history that pertain to his specific field of inquiry and look at specific works he has read. As a fellow history student, I find this blog to be extremely interesting and if I were to be involved in a similar field of inquiry I would also find his discussions very useful.