Nietszche and All Those Kinds of Guys

by Anne Tirone

In 1994 I decided to apply to the Ph.D. program in history. I was encouraged by a friend of mine who was going through the graduate program with me. He's brilliant. His book is coming out, and he's over in Australia, in Canberra. His name is Christopher Forth, Dr. Christopher Forth.

Chris and I were different. He was 22 and had graduated from Niagara University. Chris and I met in Georg Iggers' course, which was an intellectual history course. I loved every minute of it. That's the kind of thinking I like to do. Chris was in there and Georg Iggers became his advisor.

Chris was kinda quiet, but we just got to talking, just got friendly. One of the things I liked about Chris was that he included me in these high-blown, high-flying discussions of super-high mental gymnastics on Nietszche and all those kinds of guys. I enjoyed standing toe to toe with him in discussions about that. For me it was great fun, the back and forth.

I also liked watching his progress, because he was so brilliant. And he was wonderfully encouraging. He was the student on the department's Ph.D. committee, and he kept encouraging me. You know, "You can do it, you can do it."