What you're looking for is not synchronous workflows (this would be very difficult, if not impossible, in Silverlight). Rather you want to be able to manage asynchronous workflows sequentially . You want to be able to say "Download this string from the web service, and then convert the string to a JSON array", without the messiness of handling callbacks and events.
Or if you're using MVVM Light, Matt Hamilton created coroutines for that framework: http://matthamilton.net/coroutines-with-mvvm-light.
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.