What Ifs? of American History, subtitled Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, is a collection of seventeen essays dealing with counterfactual history regarding the United States. It was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 2003, ISBN 0-399-15091-9, and this book as well as its two predecessors, What If? and What If? 2, were edited by Robert Cowley.
 First edition cover | |
| Editor | Robert Cowley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | What If? |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 0-399-15091-9 |
| Preceded by | What If? 2 |
Essays
edit- "Might the Mayflower Not Have Sailed?" by Theodore K. Rabb
- What if the Mayflower had not set sail from England in 1620?
- "William Pitt the Elder and the Avoidance of the American Revolution" by Caleb Carr
- What if Parliament had pursued a more conciliatory policy regarding the Thirteen Colonies' war debts?
- "What the Fog Wrought: The Revolution's Dunkirk, August 29, 1776" by David McCullough
- What if George Washington's retreat after the Battle of Long Island had not succeeded? (This essay is a reprint from What If?)
- "'His Accidency' John Tyler" by Tom Wicker
- What if the tenth President of the United States had not assumed the full power of the presidency after the death of his predecessor, William Henry Harrison?
- "Lew Wallace and the Ghosts of the Shunpike" by Victor Davis Hanson
- What if General Wallace's reinforcement of General Grant at the Battle of Shiloh had been successful?
- "If the Lost Order Hadn't Been Lost: Robert E. Lee Humbles the Union, 1862" by James M. McPherson
- What if Lee had succeeded in destroying the Army of the Potomac? (This essay is a reprint from What If?)
- "The Northwest Conspiracy" by Thomas Fleming
- "Beyond the Wildest Dreams of John Wilkes Booth" by Jay Winik
- "The Revolution of 1877" by Cecelia Holland
- What if the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 had turned into a full-blown worker's uprising?
- "The Whale Against the Wolf: The Anglo-American War of 1896" by Andrew Roberts
- What if the United Kingdom and the United States went to war over the border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana?
- "No Pearl Harbor? FDR Delays the War" by John Lukacs
- What if Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor?
- "If Eisenhower Had Gone to Berlin" by Antony Beevor
- What if the Allied armies had not stopped at the Elbe?
- "Joe McCarthy's Secret Life" by Ted Morgan
- What if Senator McCarthy had done more damage than he did?
- "If the U-2 Hadn't Flown" by George Feifer
- What if there had been no U-2 flight on May 1, 1960?
- "The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" by Robert L. O'Connell
- What if the Crisis had spiraled into World War III?
- "JFK Lives" by Robert Dallek
- What if President Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963?
- "What if Watergate Were Still Just an Upscale Address?" by Lawrence Malkin and John F. Stacks
- What if the Watergate break-in had not been discovered?
Reviews
edit- "Great for history buffs not quite ready for fiction, it is suitable for public libraries and general academic collections."—Library Journal.[1]
- "In this interesting book, the latest in a series using the same gimmick, experts speculate on how things might have worked out differently if some pivotal historical event had not happened." —New York Times.[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., “Review of What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been,” Library Journal 128.17 (10/15/2003): 83.
- ^ Genzlinger, Neil (September 7, 2003). "JERSEY; History Could Have Gone Something Like This . . ". New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2012.