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Title: Almost America : From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S. by Steve Tally ISBN: 0-380-80091-8 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 21 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Refreshingly academic alternate history
Comment: This book is in a slightly different class than most recent alternate history (or "counterfactual history," as the author calls it). The book is an anthology, but all the stories were written by the same author, Steve Tally. From his writing, I would have guessed that Mr. Tally is a history professor, and a pretty lively one, but he is in fact a professional writer whose credits include as much hard science as history. Nevertheless, his grasp of American history is impressive, and enhances his book's quality.
The book takes twenty-eight "what if" scenarios and plays them out: What if the early United States had kept the Articles of Confederation? What if President T. Roosevelt had carried out his threat of outlawing the fledgling sport of American football? What if Nixon had fought his impeachment until the bitter end? What if IBM had written its early personal-computer code in-house instead of hiring Microsoft? The answers are fascinating, but plausible. As the author's introductory note explains, "I tried to make the counterfactual scenarios plausible. Adolf Hitler doesn't step into a time machine to join Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg . . . . [T]he counterfactuals are based on the decisions of human beings, not on acts of God. . . . Focusing on decisions allows us to second-guess those decisions, and second-guessing is always good sport." Looking past the implicit dig at "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove (a very good book, in my opinion), Mr. Tally lives up to his promise of plausibility: each chapter opens with an actual history lesson that sets the stage for the alternate-history story, then closes with a discussion of the sources and historical analogies that were used in constructing the story. For example, the chapter about the early United States keeping the Articles of Confederation, "America Scraps Its Constitution," plays out an interesting storyline whose facts are partly drawn (as the chapter later explains) from the Confederate States' experiment with a decentralized national government in the 1860s.
It may be a drawback for some readers that the stories tend to be a little dry and academic, as if the book was a real history textbook rather than a novel. For me, however, the academic tone gives the book a certain charm that only enhances its interest. The stories actually engaged me as I tried drawing on my own knowledge of history to figure out where they were heading. For those readers who are seriously interested in second-guessing Mr. Tally's second guesses, he recently (Feb. 2001) set up a website for such a discussion, which he mentions in his introductory note.
This book got me thinking, it educated me, and it was fun.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Entertaining Look at History
Comment: Steve Tally is a great humor writer with a one-of-a-kind perspective on American politics. That's why his latest book, Almost America, should appeal to anyone with an interest in humor, history or politics. The beauty of this book is that it's not just amusing; it's informative, too. When it comes to the well-known historical events, Almost America is a wonderful refresher course. When Tally deals with the more obscure events in history, he doles out some fascinating trivia. How often do you get to laugh out loud while studying American politics? Almost America is a great read!
Rating: 3
Summary: What Might Have Been...But Wasn't
Comment: Steve Tally's "Almost America" explores one of the oldest questions of all--"What if?" From the dawn of colonial America on through the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, Tally offers a chapter exploring pivotal moments in the nation's history, then follows up with a speculation on how it might have turned out had things taken a different course. The selections all fall within the range of the plausible--there are no aliens, time travel or magic involved in these tales. Thus, we learn what might have happened if Richard Nixon had chosen not to resign, if Robert E. Lee had accepted Lincoln's offer to lead U-S forces in the Civil War, if Samuel Morse had given up trying to perfect the telegraph...the list of ideas shows a real breadth of scope and imagination.
Unfortuately, Tally's vision seems to fall short when he considers the possibilities of what might have been. Most of these sketches are just too skimpy to be fully satisfying. Perhaps fewer chapters, with more fully realized concepts, might have produced a more satisfying volume.
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Title: What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley ISBN: 042518613X Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley, Stephen E. Ambrose, John Keegan ISBN: 0425176428 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century by Harry Turtledove, Martin Harry Greenberg ISBN: 0345439902 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Roads Not Taken by Stanley Schmidt, Gardner Dozois ISBN: 0345421949 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 27 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Way It Wasn't: Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternate History by Martin Harry Greenberg, Robert Silverberg ISBN: 0806517697 Publisher: Citadel Trade Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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