OS X 10.6 and OS X 10.5 are incredibly similar as far the GUI goes. You will notice however that there are speed improvements in OS X 10.6. The OS was built to work more efficiently with 64 bit technologies , built in support for MS Exchange services, amongts other mainly "under the hood," work. I don't think you have a choice as far as what version of OS X comes with your Mac, they all pretty much come standard with leopard pre-installed.
I think you will be very happy with OS X 10.6, it looks and works exactly like 10.5. If you have any doubts or want to get a better feel for it, walk into your local apple store or bestbuy and fiddle around with one of their macs for a while. Below is a review and apple links explaining Leopards features.
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.