What Might Have Been?: Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History

Throughout history, great and terrible events have often hinged upon luck. Andrew Roberts has asked a team of twelve leading historians and biographers what might have happened if major world events had gone differently Each concentrating in the area in which they are a leading authority, historians as distinguished as Antonia Fraser (Gunpowder Plot), Norman Stone (Sarajevo 1914) and Anne Somerset (the Spanish Armada) consider: What if Robert Cowley demonstrates how nearly Britain won the American war of independence. In her first publication since her acclaimed GEORGIANA, Amanda Foreman muses on Lincoln s Northern States of America and Lord Palmerston s Great Britain going to war, as they so nearly did in 1861. Whether it s Stalin fleeing Moscow in 1941(Simon Sebag Montefiore), or Napoleon not being forced to retreat from it in 1812 (Adam Zamoyski), the events covered here are important, world-changing ones.

About the Author :
Andrew Roberts took a first in Modern History at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. He won the Wolfson History prize for his biography, Salisbury: Victorian Titan. He writes and reviews regularly in the press. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Review :
Stimulating, provocative and playful, WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN, is everything one looks for in a collection of essays A gifted team of authors envisages alternative historical scenarios. As has become the custom of the genre, some of the contributors submit sober and measured assessments, while others spot a chance for playfulness Roberts himself contributes both the best essay in the collection ... and an affable, perceptive introduction which he deploys to muse on the nature of such virtual historical projections Andrew Roberts has recruited a dozen historians to pose, and answer, some of these What If, and some of their answers are as good as the questions All twelve essasy are good fun, and they will make the reader think - and that is, after all, what all good history, "factual" or "counterfactual", should be about The role that chance can play (in history) is well worth reasserting, and it is done here with much vigour and expertise An intriguing and entertaining anthology Buy the book and read it for fun WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN is a highly enjoyable read Counterfactual history, when deployed as expertly as it is here, reminds us that what seems inevitable is actually often a matter of chance The main object of these essays is to entertain, and they do so handsomely. This book is a hymn to the accidental and the erratic Great fun. I enjoyed some of the chapters so much that I shouted praise for its frivolous merits at my television set when a young historian - arguing on Newsnight with my old friend Christopher Andrew - denounced the whole idea of 'alternative history'