The "what if?" concept is one of the most original and engaging on the current history bookshelf. These essays, all written with that fresh concept in mind, are chock-full of provocative ideas, and are as accessible to the general reader as they are to the well-read scholar. The first two volumes in the series won unanimous praise. "Fascinating," hailed The New York Times Book Review. "Tantalizing," wrote the Chicago Tribune. "The 'alternate history' or 'what if' mode, plausibly and imaginatively executed, can be entertaining as well as instructive," said The Washington Times. In this new collection of never-before-published essays, our brightest historians speculate on some of the nation's more intriguing crossroads. Among the irresistible highlights: Caleb Carr (author of The Alienist) on America had there been no Revolution; Tom Wicker on the first time a vice-president, John Tyler, succeeded a deceased president, and the surprising ramifications; Jay Winik (April 1865) on the havoc that might have resulted if Booth had succeeded in his plan to assassinate Johnson and Seward as well as Lincoln; Antony Beevor (The Fall of Berlin 1945) on the possibility of Eisenhower's capture of Berlin before the Soviet arrival in 1945; and Robert Dallek (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963) on one of the most agonizing of all American "what ifs": what might have happened if JFK had not been assassinated. As a bonus in this volume are two articles that any American history collection would not be complete without, reprinted from the original What If?: "What the Fog Wrought," by David McCullough, imagines General Washington's disastrous defeat during the Battle of Long Island, and "If the Lost Order Hadn't Been Lost," by James M. McPherson, envisions General Lee's march into Pennsylvania in 1862, which changes the outcome of the Civil War.
Description:
The "what if?" concept is one of the most original and engaging on the current history bookshelf. These essays, all written with that fresh concept in mind, are chock-full of provocative ideas, and are as accessible to the general reader as they are to the well-read scholar. The first two volumes in the series won unanimous praise. "Fascinating," hailed The New York Times Book Review. "Tantalizing," wrote the Chicago Tribune. "The 'alternate history' or 'what if' mode, plausibly and imaginatively executed, can be entertaining as well as instructive," said The Washington Times. In this new collection of never-before-published essays, our brightest historians speculate on some of the nation's more intriguing crossroads. Among the irresistible highlights: Caleb Carr (author of The Alienist) on America had there been no Revolution; Tom Wicker on the first time a vice-president, John Tyler, succeeded a deceased president, and the surprising ramifications; Jay Winik (April 1865) on the havoc that might have resulted if Booth had succeeded in his plan to assassinate Johnson and Seward as well as Lincoln; Antony Beevor (The Fall of Berlin 1945) on the possibility of Eisenhower's capture of Berlin before the Soviet arrival in 1945; and Robert Dallek (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963) on one of the most agonizing of all American "what ifs": what might have happened if JFK had not been assassinated. As a bonus in this volume are two articles that any American history collection would not be complete without, reprinted from the original What If?: "What the Fog Wrought," by David McCullough, imagines General Washington's disastrous defeat during the Battle of Long Island, and "If the Lost Order Hadn't Been Lost," by James M. McPherson, envisions General Lee's march into Pennsylvania in 1862, which changes the outcome of the Civil War.