Okay, after looking at this every day for almost two months, I can finally say I'm ready to tell you what I think of it.

My biggest issue was in deciding whether or not I thought the colored block behind the text was an acceptable color for the background. My instinct was inclined to say it worked but my head was telling me that the colors should clash. I think what ultimately made me decide that it worked was the gradient effect. At first, I hadn't noticed the gradient, but when I realized I did, I also noticed that the overall colors in the document give the sort of impression of an open book. On the right side we have the darker, being the crease where the book spine is, and the left being lighter, or the end of the page. This when combined with the actual fire in the image and the fact that you talked about children burning books finally made it all click for me. Seriously, though, with the blatant imagery and your talk of fire and book burning, I'm ashamed I didn't realize it sooner. I got so caught up in the colors that I didn't look at the overall image. Anyway, now I'm firmly in the camp of "it's great!"

There are only three things I see a problem with. That subheading right underneath the paper title. First, the last third of the word "Revolution" kind of disappears into the background there. The word "The" does a little too, but not nearly as much as that last word. You could probably fix this by making that heading two lines instead of it's one. That would put all the words in that brighter band of red. Second, I would shrink that block of color behind the text a couple pixels from the top and bottom. Along the sides the block, the color is much closer to the text. If you're going for contrast/proximity with the distance between the edges and the text I think it will be okay to pull the top and bottom in probably five pixels or so. There just seems to be a lot of white space (or gradient maroon/red space). That back ground would look a bit better than the gradient. Also, I don't like how the bottom of the color block runs even with the bottom of the page. I think the background should still have a complete strip along the bottom for better continuity of the background images. Third, the edges of your fire are a little sharp. Softening them up or blurring them a bit would make them blend with everything else a bit better. I really do mean just a little. It's a really good blend as is, but just a little bit more would make it a little bit better.

Ahh, I'm glad I finally gave you some feedback on this one. It's been staring at me day in and day out, begging me to figure out what I was going to say. At last! It releases me!

--
Dear diary, today I was pompous and my roommate was crazy. Today we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.

I am all over it. I will repost this image. When I do, I will let you know and you can tell me what you think. Thank you for the input.

--
For the End-of-the-World spell press: CTRL, ALT, DELETE.

Looking forward to it.

--
Dear diary, today I was pompous and my roommate was crazy. Today we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.

And I thought I was being so edgy with my forbidden topics... Was it a requirement to do all the imagery, or did you do it on your own? Either way you did absolutely fantastic, it all works very well together. I actually like the block behind the text, but that's just me, I hate it when people make things hard to read. Great job!

Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions. I will take them to heart. I was not required to do the imagery. However, I pride myself on going the extra mile when it comes to writing and researching my history papers. Also, it helps me practice my designing skills. I am self taught, therefore, I need all the help I can get.

--
For the End-of-the-World spell press: CTRL, ALT, DELETE.