In my experience, the schema of the list instance will be upgraded most of the time. But if you have made manual customizations to the content type instance or to the list instance's fields, that can break inheritance to the site content type and the list definition resulting in the schema changes not being passed to the list instance. However, even in this latter case, changes to the event receiver will still be picked up by the list instance.
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.