Don't guess, get a profiler out and measure what's going on. Gather some empirical stats about where time is spent in the application and then you can take a view on where the pinch points are.
If your threads are all doing work and you have more threads active than processors then you are going to be spending time context switching.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.