What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been Paperback – Bargain Price, September 1, 2000

I admit – history was not one of my best subjects in school. I’ve acquired a good deal more appreciation for its study lately, however. I picked up What If? as a bit of research for an idea I had: a speculative fiction novel about a possible world history stemming from a single seemingly insignificant change several thousand years ago. Clearly, this would be a staggering task, and I knew I wasn’t up to the challenge. But it remains an intriguing thought, and I wanted to see what sort of alternate histories, counter-factual histories, had been written.One thing’s for sure: my history chops are not up to the challenge, not for something as detailed as what I had in mind! That’s okay – I’ve got plenty of other ideas where that came from. Meanwhile, I was astounded in reading What If? at just how many ways a given historical event could have turned out based on chance events – a sword or bullet that hit or missed its mark, a written order that reached or failed to reach its intended recipient, a small accident that, had it been worse, could have killed a key player before their big moment came along.These essays are well-researched and well-written. I gained a great deal of knowledge of historical figures I’d known only by name if at all, and a good deal more knowledge of those I knew already. I’m still amazed at what a brilliant tactician George Washington was. History teachers would do well to read it to supplement their own knowledge of events, as it might help engage students in the classroom.Admittedly, this is military history. However, it does touch on how certain events affected people’s everyday lives, and how things might have been different if certain small changes had occurred.

This book presents a number of "counterfactual" scenarios - historical events that are considered turning points, with possibilities as to what might have happened had the event turned out differently. The most well-known examples (to westerners) are included, such as "What if the fog had lifted while Washington was evacuating Long Island" (American Revolution won by British), "What if Lee's general order hadn't been lost" (Confederacy fights Union to stand-still and gains independence), and "What if Germany had not transferred troops to the east prematurely in 1914" (Schlieffen Plan succeeds, no WWII, no Communism in Russia, etc.). But, to the credit of the book, there is much more. Historians from all eras were invited to contribute, so we have counterfactuals from the Roman Empire and Jerusalem in 701 BC up to Mao Zedong's long march.The essays are uniformly enjoyable and interesting. As pointed out by another reviewer, there is more describing what happened rather than speculating too far into the future on the consequences. For example, if Lee's order hadn't fallen into Union hands, the result may have been a decisive Confederate victory in 1862. The author (J.M. McPherson) only goes so far as to say this might have led to an armistice and recognition of the CSA. But he goes no farther - what would the world be like today if that had been the case? It might have been more appropriate (given the name of the book) for a little more speculation on long-term consequences.Having said that, many (including myself) would argue that the history does not hinge directly on single events or single people. For example, if Washington had been captured on Long Island in 1776, would the American Revolution have failed? Maybe. If so, would it have have significantly altered world history? Probably not - the French Revolution would still have occurred, and the US would have achieved independence anyway (as did England's other colonies). However, it's impossible to forsee the consequences of the fall of Jerusalem in 701 BC - would Judaism have been wiped out, and therefore would Christianity and Islam never have existed? I don't think anyone would say the only difference that seige makes is the deity to which St. Paul's Basilica is dedicated.So, whether you believe in the ability of "small" events to change history for all time or not, this is a very interesting and informative book, including a wide variety of scenarios and turning points in history, and what might have happened had the outcome been different.

This book was very well written and an easy read. I enjoyed all the various historians' essays and scenarios on their various "what if" stories. Almost every scenario was interesting and fun to read, and for the most part none of the historians got too "history" on us and bored us with tedious amounts of information that might take away from the enjoyment of the book.Most of the historians explain what really happened first in each essay in order to help the casual reader established what is definitive fact from the proposed changes the historian is proposing to make in their counterfactual account. This helps, even us history majors do not know about all of these what ifs...and I think that's another thing I enjoyed about this book. Some of the battles were ones I am not too familiar with and it was thoroughly fun to read through the essay and learn about the battle and then about a "what if" in regards to it. Very fun and interesting stuff to say the least!There are a very few mediocre essays/scenarios but overall, not enough to stop me from rating this a 5/5. For the most part, very well written. Some very famous historians wrote in this book such as Ambrose, Keegan, etc. Informative and interesting history at its finest with this book.

I hated "history" in grade school. So painfully boring. Nothing but a blur of names and dates that were meaningless and I could not remember. I was quite surprised at how interesting this book was for me. Having had time to contemplate, I think I know why. In school, the poor teachers have one semester class where they are supposed to teach you the "history of the world". There is only so much time. So that's why it's just a blur of dates and names. But I found from this book that when you learn more about these points in time, the people involved and why they made the decisions they made, and how it affected human history, it can actually be very interesting. When I finished reading this book, I thought "wow", history can actually be interesting!!

Reading.

Not indispensable reading

This book is fascinating.I had never thought about the impact of tiny changes from the Ancient world....a random outbreak of a disease or the death of one person can change so much.The section on the Mongols was a bit scary because they were such a brutal fighting force and could have easily changed Europe into a barbaric tribal area with no great cities.The book lost my interest a bit in the middle when there was a huge section about the American war of Independence, although maybe American history buffs would find it interesting!You get a brief history lesson along with each counter-factual and it can help you discover periods of history to look into in more detail.It's a shame there wasn't more about Medieval England, as that's my favourite era of history

What if they could hire an editor for the book? It would have been at least readable then!The idea and the premise is good. But the voices and narratives are multiple, and it goes back and forth, without any context.