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Title: What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley, James Bradley, Caleb Carr ISBN: 0-399-14795-0 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 27 September, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.35 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: This Book is Really About the Meaning of History
Comment: Most alternative history texts are supposed to entertain as well as to instruct. When these texts are novelized counterfactuals--like any book by Harry Turtledove--the focus is on entertainment. However, when the ostensible purpose is simply to explore what might have been, then that author is crossing the gray line that separates fun from fact. In WHAT IF?, a select group of military historians each zoomed in on a critical turning point in battle history, and just as a train engineer can switch rails with the flip of a switch, so did each of these deflect factual events with a minor tinkering. The impact on the buying public was sufficiently jarring for a sequel, called unsurprisingly WHAT IF?:2 to also resonate. Here the focus is mostly, but not exclusively on matters military. Typically, a noted expert describes an actual event as it really happened. Then, this expert will introduce an historical wild-card, the future ramifications of which the expert will explore. There are twenty-five essays, beginning with the early death of Socrates, and continuing with essays that span centuries at a jump. The choice of topics is not unexpected in most cases. What if Jesus had not been crucified is one that has been contemplated eleswhere. Or what if William the Conqueror had himself been conquered at Hastings in 1066? Other issues are more original: What if Hitler had begun his war in 1938 when his Wehrmacht was less lethal than it would be one year later? Or what if Pope Pius XII had been more forceful in protesting the Holocaust? Most reviewers have considered the relative merits of individual essays. Some essays, one reviewer might argue, simply would have been most unlikely because of one historical reason or another. My focus is less on the legitimacy of one essayist's visual acumen or future hindsight and more on the sweep of alternate events that this text calls counterfactual history but is really playful history. When one reads that Jesus survived the crucifixion or that a defeated Hitler sat in the prisoner dock in Nurenberg, then one is forced to review history in much the same way that a professional historian might. What really did happen? What might have happened then becomes yet another isolated factor in what did. The thought processes, the logical sifting of cause and event, and the working out of an Asimovian sweep of Imperial Psychohistory then lead the reader into areas where only the gifted and daring historians tread. How each reader reacts to each essay is less a function of what the essayist brought to the historical table and more of what the reader himself can supply. In WHAT IF?:2 the reader is challenged to rethink long held assumptions of the iron grip of history and perhaps to find out that this iron is quite flexible after all.
Rating: 4
Summary: Counterfactuals, if they are credible, blow me away.
Comment: If you love history, you probably have one. These two volumes are worth your time. It helps to know about what really happen & the various historian/authors usually supply background. Of course, unless you enjoy history, you're probably not reading this.
It's simple. Take a historical event & create a plausible alternate outcome. Three examples stood out for me. What if the Allies had lost on D-Day? The Germans throw the invasion back into the sea? It could have happened. Does the U.S. give up & turn it's attention to Japan? Does FDR get reelected? Mushroom clouds over Europe in 1945?
Pontius Pilate pardons Jesus instead of condeming him to death. Chtistainity is changed. No salvation through Christ's death on the cross. No cross, the ultimate symbol of the faith. Jesus dies of old age, confused, a great prophet maybe, but not the savior.
The French win the Franco-Prussian War or even if that stupid little war nevers occurs, history could have been profoundly changed. The unification of Germany could have been slowed down. The German Empire might not ever existed. Without that, a little skirmish in 1914 Europe would never have become World WarI. Without World War I, no World WarII, no Communism, no cold war.
Create your own scenario. Some of the histrians realy get into the aftermaths of their stories. Others not so much so, leaving you clamoring for more. But the reader or listener, can fill in the blanks. There are no right or wrong answers because it never happened.
Rating: 2
Summary: Be careful what you wish for
Comment: After reading WHAT IF, Volume 1, I stated that I eagerly awaited another collection of a non-military nature. Well, that's what I got and the result is a huge disappointment. As another reviewer noted, the bad ones were too long and the good ones were too short.
My number one objection was the lack of an alternative story. IN many of these, 80% of the writing was a review of what actually happened. So, in the one about Socrates, we get a lot of Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Perfect Forms, battles, but almost no philosophical suppositions of a world without Socrates. In the one in which Jesus is not executed, the author could not help but keep referring to "actual" history and apologizing for even discussing the subject.
The list goes on - the Chinese exploration tale centered on what happened with the Ming dynasty rather than an alternate tale. The Cleopatra tale involves a lengthy review of past history. The people who read these stories already KNOW the history - they want a brief forward followed by the story, not another rehash of World Events 101. Where is the imagination, where is the spark? Very poor execution.
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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: Almost America : From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S. by Steve Tally ISBN: 0380800918 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 21 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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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 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: What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Antony Beevor, Calebert Carr, Robert Dallek, John Lukacs, Jay Winik, Robert Cowley, Caleb Carr ISBN: 0399150919 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 16 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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