The Best Part of Nothing

The idea I wondered about while reading the last part of the reading was the Russian Tsar. Why did the Tsar want the power to lead the nation as a sole supreme power so badly. The Tsar was willing to risk public outcry and rebellions just to stay in complete power. In order to keep most subjects in Russia happy he need only to listen to the Duma everyone now and them, but instead he ignored all ideas that they purposed. When the people did start rebelling, the Tsar set in troops and police to stop the riots by threat of force or force.
I think the time may have had an effect on the Tsar. Every time he tried to develop international diplomacy it was seen as a sign of weakness. This could led the Tsar to not want to show any more weakness by listening to the people.

Finally a Study of Battle

What surprised me most during this chapter of reading was that for once we studied the struggle itself. I do not care what rights women now have because of the war, or how minorities finally have an equal chance at getting a job. Well, yes, I do care and think that it is important to know but learning about minorities but not the war itself  three years in a row can get tiresome. I find it interesting that we will spend approximately 33 days talking about the causes of the war and then spend two, maybe three if we are lucky, days talking about the war itself. It seems to me that war itself somehow gets lost in the goal of learning the cause of war and the affects of the war. I think the interesting part of this reading was that for once we looked at battles, leaders, and the soldiers themselves. I think a greater look into the war would allow for a greater level of understanding of history then the current way of learning about the tension that caused the war but then saying war happened and then moving on to the time between the wars.