Virtual History
Niall Ferguson - Virtual History
Niall Ferguson is an American historian.
These are not stories placed in worlds of alternate history but scholarly essays about possibilities.
In addition to the obligatory (yawn) variations of "What if Nazis won", there are various other scenarios. What if Britain had prevented two revolutions - of Puritans and Americans? What if Britain had not had taken part of the First World War? Nothing really spectacular in my opinion but these are historians who might avoid Alien Space Bats unconsciously, keeping their feet in the ground.
One of the articles is essentially debunking of the hagiography of Kennedy clan about their cherished president (well, he could not even get the Bay of Pigs right. And Chruchev lost his authority when he - wisely - backed down to avoid the nuclear war).
The last article, by Ferguson himself, tries to tie all the speculations together, ending with still somewhat similar world to our own but where, among other things, non-independent North America still fights a civil war and non-disappeared communism has been replaced by very orthodox Russian religious extremism with Lenin and Stalin being priests.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/6725.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Niall Ferguson is an American historian.
These are not stories placed in worlds of alternate history but scholarly essays about possibilities.
In addition to the obligatory (yawn) variations of "What if Nazis won", there are various other scenarios. What if Britain had prevented two revolutions - of Puritans and Americans? What if Britain had not had taken part of the First World War? Nothing really spectacular in my opinion but these are historians who might avoid Alien Space Bats unconsciously, keeping their feet in the ground.
One of the articles is essentially debunking of the hagiography of Kennedy clan about their cherished president (well, he could not even get the Bay of Pigs right. And Chruchev lost his authority when he - wisely - backed down to avoid the nuclear war).
The last article, by Ferguson himself, tries to tie all the speculations together, ending with still somewhat similar world to our own but where, among other things, non-independent North America still fights a civil war and non-disappeared communism has been replaced by very orthodox Russian religious extremism with Lenin and Stalin being priests.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/6725.html. Please comment there using OpenID.