A federal mandate is a law. What makes it a mandate is it requires action by a lesser government entity. For example, school districts are affected by mandates in the federal "no child left behind" act.
The clean air act was a quasi-mandate in that it gave the states the option of whether to incorporate the federal regulations into their own state environmental agency for enforcement, or default and let the feds regulate clean air in their state and bypass the state agency. Most states opted to regulate themselves and thus accept the mandate. You sometimes hear the term "unfunded mandate".
What that means is the federal government has directed action to be taken, but has made no provision for paying the cost.
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.