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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never Boring, History that Keeps You Wanting More, December 18, 2000
This review is from: Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S. (Paperback)
Talk about a timely book. Tally takes a "What if?" approach to pivotal moments in American history and helped me understand the significance of people, politics, and cultural movements in a way that left me longing for more. He leads up to a particular moment by setting you down in the midst of the historic context and its key players and chronicles what lead up to that watershed moment. He then counter poses the question, What if the outcome had been different? And then explores how our national character or world history might have been altered if a decision or circumstance had gone the other way. One of my favorite college football teams is headed for the Rose Bowl in January, and here Tally discusses how Teddy Roosevelt nearly used the bully pulpit of the presidency to abolish that sport. What is even more fascinating is considering how influential college athletics have been in making the University accessible and hence supported by lots of people who might have otherwise cared less. In today's political climate of close elections and missed presidential opportunities, Tally has some wonderful chapters on what might have happened if Tilden who had won the popular vote had defeated Hayes, if Dewey really had defeated Truman, and if Nixon had not resigned but had been impeached. Each chapter seems so timely, and yet opens a chapter of American history that most of us have overlooked or forgotten. There is the usual stuff about military defeats that might have been victories or victories that were almost defeats--the kind of stuff you used to hear vigorously debated at the barber shop. And even though I eat this stuff up like candy, you wonder, What's the point? But Tally takes it a step further and helps the reader explore the larger consequences for the future of our nation, not just the outcome of a battle or war. What I appreciate most about this book was the diversity of subject material. It's not just politics and battle but also culture, sports, ideas, and technology. All of it is grist for Tally's thorough research and nimble imagination. My one disappointment with the book comes when I am just getting into the life and times of person and decision, e.g. Andrew Carnegie and his decision to sell off his Steel Company, when--before I know it--the chapter is done. I look back, and yes, I've been reading for some time, but the way it's brought to life makes me want to continue my reading. It would have been helpful if Tally had a selected bibliography of where I could go to go to find more information on a particular historic hingepoint. I want to know where I can go to find other authors, who like Steve Tally, can make history accessible, enjoyable AND meaningful. This is a book that would make a great Christmas gift (I've already recommended it to friends), but it would also be a wonderful text for high school American history classes. It would help them see that history doesn't have to be boring in order to teach us about our past and point us to our future.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshingly academic alternate history, April 22, 2001
This review is from: Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S. (Paperback)
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good despite a few factual errors, July 1, 2004
This review is from: Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S. (Paperback)
Some of these are really thought-provoking and well thought out. I especially enjoyed the one concerning Teddy Roosevelt following through with his plan to ban college football unless they did something to curb the extreme violence (23 young men died in the 1905 season). The consequences were interesting and I thought very plausible. The book is marred by a few factual errors. They really are not terribly important to the outcome of the author's alternate histories but show a sloppiness in editing. Some examples are placing the Revolutionary War fort of Kaskaskia in present-day Kentucky when it is actually in Illinois and saying that people blamed Lincoln's assassination on people who were wanting to revive the Union cause (obviously the Union cause was in great shape by the point of the war - I assume his editors did not catch it and he meant to say Confederate). Despite the errors, the book is still a fun read. The author has a website for the book at www.almostamerica.com with a couple of his alternate histories if you want to get a feel for the book.
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