What Might Have Been

What Might Have Been is more what I was looking for in alternative history when I reviewed the Mammoth Book of Alternative Histories a month ago. This one is a bit less fanciful, with more background of the actual events.

Each chapter is written by a different author, concentrating on a different event of their choice, running from the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British, up to the 2000 Presidential election. Some of them were more interesting to me than others, such as Conrad Black's "The Japanese Do Not Attack Pearl Harbor", which outlines all the methods FDR had already adopted to goad Hitler into declaring war on them, methods he likely would have escalated had Hitler not gone ahead and declared war on the U.S. after Pearl (since the terms of Germany's treaty with Japan did not require it). Simon Heffer's "The Brighton Bomb Kills Margaret Thatcher" was somewhat less effective since, as an ignorant American, I didn't really know most of the players. Heffer did do a very good job of outlining what he thought the policies of her successor would be, why they'd be a disaster, and the effect on England going forward.

The nice thing about the book is there isn't a distinct style the authors are forced to conform to. Some choose to outline events as they happened, then select a divergence and explore its possibilites (Amanda Foreman's "The Trent Incident Leads to War"). Others opt to simply dive directly into their alternative, presenting it as if it's the actual result (Anne Somerset's "The Spanish Armada Lands in England"). Most are fairly serious, with the notable exception of David Frum's "The Chad Falls Off in Florida". WIth that one, I couldn't tell if Frum was being serious in a positive or negative way, if it was supposed to be a satire, or if it was a "the grass is always greener on the other side" narrative. It's the last chapter in the book, so it's a bit of an awkward landing, but other than that, most of the selections are pretty good.