History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History [Paperback]

J. David Markham (Editor), Mike Resnick (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2008

This anthology collects seven of the top stories in the alternate military-history genre by writers Harry Turtledove, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Mina, William Saunders, Michael F. Flynn, and editor Mike Resnick and submits them to scrutiny by seven eminent historians to find out just how probable the events they describe really are. Addressing pivotal historical events—including the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, the Battle of New Orleans, radical politics and Southern strategy in the mid-20th century, the Napoleonic wars, Alcibiades’s sack of Syracuse, the American Civil War, and Kenya’s fight for independence from Britain—this book seeks to find out how different circumstances could have affected world history. Historians present intriguing questions about these events, such as Could our atomic bomb policy really have been changed by one faulty screw? What if Napoleon had become emperor of the United States, leading such heroes as Crockett and Houston in the Battle of New Orleans? Would Admiral Nelson’s defection to France really have altered the course of the Napoleonic wars? Would President Lincoln’s assassination during the Gettysburg Address have left the Confederacy as a separate country? From one end of the historical spectrum to the other, this book looks at what didn’t happen in military history to gain a richer understanding of all that did.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For every history buff who loves to ask 'what if,' this is the perfect book. Plus, it's just plain fun to read!"  —John C. McManus, author, Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers who made the Defense of Bastogne Possible  and The 7th Infantry Regiment: Combat in an Age of Terror, the Korean War through the Present

About the Author

J. David Markham is an internationally acclaimed historian, Napoleonic scholar, and award-winning author. He has taught history and other subjects at the university, college, and high school levels and has received numerous teaching awards and recognitions. He lives in Olympia, Washington. Mike Resnick is a four-time Hugo Award–winner and the author of 45 science fiction novels, as well as numerous books of nonfiction, anthologies, short stories, and screenplays. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books (February 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933771100
• ISBN-13: 978-1933771106
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,849,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike Resnick is the author of numerous science fiction novels and short stories, including Dragon America, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Amulet of Power, Mutiny, Return to Santiago, and Santiago. He is the editor of This Is My Funniest and has won five Hugo Awards and the Nebula Award. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good alternate history collection., March 7, 2008

By 

MK (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History (Paperback)

This collection contains six alternate history short stories: "Southern Strategy" by Michael Flynn; "Empire" by William Sanders; "The Lucky Strike" by Kim Stanley Robinson; "The Daimon" and "Must and Shall" by Harry Turtledove; and "Vive L'Amiral" by John Mina. It also contains seven non-fiction essays where various historians discuss the real-world history of the events in the stories and weigh in on how plausible these alternate versions of events are.

The six stories are all well-written but all of them have appeared in past anthologies. The information and opinions in the essays will also probably be familiar to most fans of the alt-history genre. So this book, while enjoyable, doesn't offer much that is new to genre fans. However, it would make a good introduction to the alt-history genre.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars History Revisited Revisited, June 13, 2008

By 

J. Jones (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History (Paperback)

I found this book somewhat less than enjoyable. In addition to the problem of the stories having appeared previously, having them picked apart in the included essays was both tedious and unnecessary. Most of the historians could have made the required points in a quarter of the space actually provided. Some of the additional comment approached the length of the actual story.

I might have liked reading some of these stories again if the historical essays had not sucked the life out of them.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wet blanket historical essays mar a good collection of AH stories, February 14, 2009

By 

Jvstin "Paul Weimer" (Circle Pines, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History (Paperback)

History Revisited: The Great Battles
Edited by J David Markham and Mike Resnick

In concept, this is a great idea. Take some classic military oriented AH short stories: Southern Strategy by Michael Flynn. Must and Shall by Harry Turtledove. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson. Having some classic AH stories in one volume is a great idea in general. Then, each of these stories, pair them with an essay from a bonafide historian exploring the divergence, and its plausiblity.

Such are the lines that History Revisited are built upon. In practice, however, its a failure.

Uniformly, the essays by the historians are long, dull, and unimaginative. The historians mostly reject the scenarios posited by the science fiction writers, and in the worst offenders, seem to look down upon the very idea of the alternative. It is the exception, not the rule, when a historian actually likes the story that he has been paired with, rather than at best bemusement. This sort of condescension takes the wind out of reading the story, if one reads the paired essay immediately afterwards.

This, in my opinion makes the reading experience of the stories less pleasurable and it is for that reason that I don't really recommend this collection--unless you *like* to poke holes in Alternate Histories. If you read AH stories to see where Turtledove or Flynn "clearly got it wrong" and grouse about it, then this collection is definitely your cup of tea. If, instead, you enjoy AH stories on their own merits, you can either read the stories and skip the essays, or if you read the essays, I recommend you read them removed in time and space from the story itself. Otherwise, the pleasure of reading the stories will be diminished, as it was from me.