Central and northern NY have no natural disaster hazards, have relatively low costs of living, and are quite pleasant. I recently moved from Maine (which sucks) back to Albany, NY. I spent 40+ years in New Hampshire, which is beautiful, but cold in the winters.
Starting around Albany and going west, NY is quite nice, relatively rural in many areas, and very colorful. There are also many college towns, so people your age are in abundance.
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.