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because I had done very well at Sunday school, and he, I think, always felt it would be a good thing to have a rabbi in the family.
Were you tempted at all?
Not certainly by the financial offer, but the thought crossed my mind more than once because I did have some tendencies in that direction at one period during my middle teens. However, I decided that I would much rather be in journalistic affairs.
Did you specialize in any particular branch of history?
At Princeton, more in American than any other, but, while I majored in American history, I had a great deal of European history, too, and of course since I had done quite a lot of traveling, my interest was pretty much in that field. My father, who was a great deal older than I--he was about 54 when I was born--would take my brother and myself on trips to Europe from the time that I was about 14. We did that two summers. We also had previously traveled a lot out West, so my interest was both in European and American, I should say, although technically at Princeton I majored in American history.
Did you write an honors thesis?
Well, everybody in Princeton in those days, and as far as I know still, had to write a thesis, so I can't claim it was an honors thesis in that sense as distinct from some other kind, because that was a requirement for graduation. A thesis was a requirement and mine
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