The Collected What If ?
With contributions from some of the best-known and most highly regarded historians, political writers, and military historians, there’s almost nothing that the book doesn’t touch on.
From the ancient world :
What if the Persian Empire had defeated the Athenians ? What if Alexander The Great had died before achieving greatness ? What if the Mongol hordes had run wild through Western Europe, as they certainly seemed ready to do before their Khan died ? What if Socrates had died during one of Athens’ many wars ?
In each of these situations, it’s striking to realize how even a minor change in events might have prevented what we know as Western Civilization from even existing.
In addition to these scenarios there is, of course, plenty of material on more modern crises, such as the entirely unfortunate and, it turns out, entirely avoidable, at least in the way it unfolded in our world, First World War. Even here though, there are small events that could have had major ramifications — but for a few inches, Winston Churchill was nearly run down by a cab in New York City in the 1930s, for example.
If you’re interested in history and the question of who things might have been, this is the collection to get.
