Virtual history : alternatives and counterfactuals / edited by Niall Ferguson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ferguson, Niall

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Modern.

Physical Description:

x, 548 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, 1999.

Summary:

What if there had been no American War of Independence? What if Hitler had invaded Britain? What if Kennedy had lived? What if Russia had won the Cold War? Niall Ferguson, author of the highly acclaimed The Pity of War, leads the charge in this historically rigorous series of separate voyages into "imaginary time" and provides far-reaching answers to these intriguing questions.

Ferguson's brilliant 90-page introduction doubles as a manifesto on the methodology of counter-factual history. His equally masterful afterword traces the likely historical ripples that would have proceeded from the maintenance of Stuart rule in England. This breathtaking narrative gives us a convincing, detailed "alternative history" of the West -- from the accession of "James III" in 1701, to a Nazi-occupied England, to a U.S. Prime Minister Kennedy who lives to complete his term.

Contents:

Virtual history : towards a "chaotic" theory of the past / Niall Ferguson

England without Cromwell : what if Charles I had avoided the Civil War? / John Adamson

British America : what if there had been no American Revolution? / J.C.D. Clark

British Ireland : what if home rule had been enacted in 1912? / Alvin Johnson

Kaiser's European Union : what if Britain had "stood aside" in August 1914? / Niall Ferguson

Hitler's England : what if Germany had invaded Britain in May 1940? / Andrew Roberts

Nazi Europe : what if Nazi Germany had defeated the Soviet Union? / Michael Burleigh

Stalin's war or peace : what if the Cold War had been avoided? / Jonathan Haslam

Camelot continued : what if John F. Kennedy had lived? / Diane Kunz

1989 without Gorbachev : what if Communism had not collapsed? / Mark Almond

Virtual history, 1646-1996 / Niall Ferguson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 441-[529]) and index.

ISBN:

0465023223 :

OCLC:

42403866