As the first Faculty Research Spotlight, Antonio Thompson, an Austin Peay State University history professor talked about his big research accomplishments. Thompson has been doing various different types of research on World War II for the past 20 years of his life.

He has written up to seven different books and several different articles including his more well known book called “…But if a Zombie Apocalypse Did Occur” which he wrote with his wife, Amy Thompson.

Thompson has also done several talks in England and Germany. When discussing his reasons for focusing on World War II, he explained that when he was younger the best parts of his days were going to the comic bookstore to purchase Captain America comics—a series that took place during World War II.

Thompson even talked about all the heart felt conversations with different people that witnessed what really happened in World War II. When doing this research paper, he had a theory that America would not have won the war if not for the POWs, Prisoners of War, in Kentucky and Tennessee. Thompson discussed the treatment of POWs in America and how they were treated the best here. He interviewed five different people for this paper to prove his theory correct. He traveled all over the place to meet these people, including a last minute flight to Austria.

At the end of the talk Thompson explained that when you work hard on your research papers, you will have to sacrifice something in life. He said that doing his research brought him a lot of joy, but he had to sacrifice almost 20 years of family time.

After all this time doing his research, books and articles he was asked what was next on his path of research. Thompson replied that he is taking a long break to enjoy his family time and is going to relax before trying to write more books on his research topics. After 20 years of traveling to 32 countries and various amount of research Professor Antonio Thompson is taking a long over due break.