I think the problem isn’t particularly the way World War II is taught in school as it how all wars are taught. That is to say, rarely and without any focus on the military action. Which in some respects really is peripheral to the before-and-after of a major global war. Obviously I find it much more fascinating (and seek out this aspect of history myself), but with several thousand years of human history to try and teach kids in less than two decades, it’s not wholly unreasonable to see military details skipped.

The Nick Ross Orchestra present “Sounds of the Glenn Miller Era” (www.seetickets.com).