Star Wars and History: A collection of historical essays to be published in 2013

The New York Times broke some interesting news regarding a non-fiction title from the publisher John Wiley & Sons.   Wiley specializes in academic publishing, for those less dedicated students they publish "Cliff Notes" and for the less technically proficient the "For Dummies" series.

George Lucas has long been involved in education and trying to promote education, and this book sounds like it could be an educational and extremely fun resource in higher education classrooms as well as for the general public.

It is awesome that it sounds like this may be the first of a series of books, also mentioned are "real science" and "political science," could this be the first step to me going back to school for my Masters in Star Wars? 

Even cooler is that Mr. Lucas may be playing a pretty important role in the content of these books as the below quotes illustrate;

“George Lucas is a history buff, and his fascination with history greatly influenced the plot and themes explored in the Star Wars universe,” Connie Santisteban, associate editor for general interest books at Wiley, wrote in an e-mail. “Being able to work closely with Mr. Lucas on this and other books will give fans an inside look at the real science, history and political science that informed ‘Star Wars’ while also providing readers with an educational tool.”

“Indeed, this is not about historians guessing or inferring what went into Star Wars, this is a book based on Lucas’s notes and input about what patterns of history actually did go into Star Wars or influence his thinking,” she (Emilie Nicks, Lucasfilm Spokeswoman) wrote in response to questions. “The idea is that though the saga takes place in a galaxy far, far away, it is based on real things that have happened and that are happening in the real world.”

SOURCE: NY TIMES MEDIA DECODER