What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been [Hardcover]

Various (Author), Robert Cowley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2001

"The book of the year for any history lover." (Kirkus Reviews on What If?)

There is no surer way to make history come alive than to contemplate those moments when the world's future-the government and wealth of nations, the faith and culture of generations-hung in the balance. In this volume, many of our brightest historians speculate about some of history's intriguing crossroads and the ways in which our lives may have been changed for the better-or the worse. The twenty-seven original essays range across the full span of history. Victor Davis Hanson imagines a drastically altered development of Western philosophy if Socrates had died on the battlefield at Delium. Writing about the Reformation and an early death of Martin Luther, Geoffrey Parker describes a world without the Protestant Church. John Lukacs proposes that Theodore Roosevelt might have ended the First World War-if he had been renominated for president in 1912. Geoffrey Ward reminds us of Franklin D. Roosevelt's good fortune in both his choice of a wife and in his narrow escape from an assassin's bullet in 1933. James Bradley describes the defense by a band of soldiers that may have saved Australia in 1942 and had a dramatic effect on the eventual Japanese defeat in the Pacific. And Caleb Carr argues that we could have been spared the horrific last six months of World War II had Eisenhower seized his chance to destroy the Nazis in the fall of 1944.

The list of illustrious contributors includes Lance Morrow, Theodore K. Rabb, Alistair Horne, James Chace, Tom Wicker, Andrew Roberts, Josiah Ober, and others.

Edited by Robert Cowley.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many armchair historians have spent hours daydreaming of what might have been if some turning point in history had gone another way. The appeal of the What If? books is that editor Robert Cowley gets professional historians to concentrate on these imaginative questions. The first volume focused entirely on military matters; What If? 2 leans heavily but not exclusively in that direction. Victor Davis Hanson wonders about the consequences for Western philosophy if Socrates had died in battle, Thomas Fleming ponders a Napoleonic invasion of North America, and Caleb Carr argues the Second World War lasted longer than it should have because George Patton's superiors restrained their energetic general. More than two dozen contributors offer bold speculation: If the Chinese had committed themselves to ocean exploration, asks Theodore F. Cook Jr., might they have discovered the New World and even prevented "the worst horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade [by halting] Portuguese expansion along the African coast at this early date?" Other times they are pleasantly modest: In one of the book's best sections, John Lukacs describes the fantasy of Teddy Roosevelt defeating Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election--and decides the long- term effects would not have been great. Like its predecessor, What If? 2 is delicious mind candy for readers willing to believe there's nothing inevitable about what has come before us. --John Miller

From Publishers Weekly

Like its predecessor (also edited by Cowley), this is an engrossing collection of essays on counterfactual history. Each contributor examines a pivotal event, then considers the ramifications had the event come out differently. In some cases the ramifications are so monumental that their effects are more obvious than intriguing. For example, if Socrates had died in battle during the Peloponnesian War, Victor Davis Hanson suggests, democracy, Christianity and Western thought as a whole would be radically different. Similarly, had Pontius Pilate pardoned Jesus the book's most fascinating premise Christianity would have developed in entirely new directions, according to Carlos M.N. Eire. Other essays depend, to diminished effect, on nonevents, such as Theodore F. Cook Jr. explaining what the incredible Chinese navy would have accomplished in the Atlantic and the New World had the Ming emperors not turned inwards. Most authors, however, have teased out some incredibly tiny detail in history and demonstrated how that one stitch holds the whole fabric together. Most notably, Robert L. O'Connell explains how one bureaucrat may have kept Germany from winning WWI by hindering a program of unrestricted submarine warfare. James Bradley writes about a ragtag group of Australian soldiers during WWII who held back thousands of well-trained Japanese forces on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea and by this Thermopylae-like action prevented the enemy from taking Port Moresby and, thus, Australia; had the defenders failed, "the entire calculus of the Pacific War" would have changed. And Robert Katz explores what would have happened had Pius XII protested the Holocaust, which he twice had a chance to do. Cowley has put together another fun book, although his introductions to each essay give away too much of the game. Illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (September 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399147950
• ISBN-13: 978-0399147951
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,160,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever Counterfactuals, October 15, 2001

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (Hardcover)

What If? 2 continues the work of What If? 1 by offering interesting looks at alternatives to known history (counterfactuals) written by well known historians. What If? 2 is even better than its predecessor because it does not stick to military issues, but examines a wide range of cultural and biological possibilities. For example, the most intriguing chapter is a look at what would have happened had Jesus not been crucified, but lived to an advanced age. The postulated result is a true Judeo-Christianity imposed on the world by an apparently permanent Roman Empire. Another remarkable chapter describes the probable impact of a Ming Chinese trans-Pacific voyage of discovery in the 15th century. Military affairs are not entirely neglected, as there are discussions of alternate endings for the Battle of Hastings, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I, among others. Finally, there is a fine examination of the role of the potato in history. I hope there is a What If? 3, 4, etc.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars this is the same book as What If 2....watch out, November 4, 2005

By 

Tomas Mendizabal (Panama) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More What If? (Paperback)

Great book with many fascinating questions. However, be warned. You cant tell cause you cant look inside this book, but from the comments from the other reviewers, it sounds as if this book is just What If 2 but with another name, the same content with a new title. If so this should be advertised clearly to avoid ripping off consumers. Beware.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What if - there's no payoff?, July 22, 2004

By 

Tony Chu (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: More What If? (Paperback)

I had high hopes for this book. The idea of "alternative history" is one that fascinates me. And the lineup of "what if" scenarios in this book is certainly intriguing - What if the Chinese navy had been allowed to discover the new world? What if Hitler had survived to go on trial? What if the Allies had not cracked the German code in WWII? What if Lincoln had not freed the slaves?

In each case, the chosen author does a fine job of building up the excitement, relating the background and context that led up to the pivotal "either - or" event. They also construct good arguments to convince you that history could indeed have easily gone the other way.

Armed with this knowledge, the book promises to "imagine...what might have been." This is where I feel it falls short. Few meaningful, concrete statements are made about what would have happened. In fact, some of the authors spend more time explaining the difficulties in forecasting the consequences, than they spend in actually trying to do so.

General statements about the Cold War probably being "different", or musings that things might have turned out the same (e.g., Nixon without Hiss might have still made it to the presidency), left me disappointed, even exasperated.

So I give the book 3 stars for raising interesting questions and teaching me more about history, but no more than 3 stars, because I was left waiting for payoffs that didn't come.