>. The final story reminds us that if a security guard had not noticed a door taped open, Watergate may never have been discovered. Could that have hastened in the Reagan Bush years or is there an inevitability to history dependent more on the characters involved-- so that while history may have its 'shoestring' moments-- nevertheless a 'preordained course' will more or less be followed... I wonder...
Rating: 
Summary: a collection of twist of events
Review: An interesting collection of historic events that would have happened differently if some element did not happen. I cannot say that this book was great reading because some of the stories, I felt, were boring. Some provided so much detail that they left me yearning for something written differently.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever Counterfactuals
Review: Here we have a third collection of fascinating counterfactuals (alternate histories). This collection focuses on the United States, and the only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is that two of the submissions were published several years ago in What If # 1. Surely there is more than enough material available to make up a full volume on the US without resorting to repetition!Even with the duplicate essays, this is an absorbing volume. My favorite selection has to be the next to last one, a look back at the two day nuclear war of October 1962 from a ten year perspective. It is completely believable and disturbing in light of recent US disregard of international opinion. (One hopes certain members of the Bush Administration will receive this book as a holiday gift this year!) I trust there will be yet further What Ifs to come.
Rating:
Summary: Clever Counterfactuals
Review: Here we have a third collection of fascinating counterfactuals (alternate histories). This collection focuses on the United States, and the only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is that two of the submissions were published several years ago in What If # 1. Surely there is more than enough material available to make up a full volume on the US without resorting to repetition!
Even with the duplicate essays, this is an absorbing volume. My favorite selection has to be the next to last one, a look back at the two day nuclear war of October 1962 from a ten year perspective. It is completely believable and disturbing in light of recent US disregard of international opinion. (One hopes certain members of the Bush Administration will receive this book as a holiday gift this year!) I trust there will be yet further What Ifs to come.
Rating: 
Summary: The Road Not Taken
Review: History is often written as if outcomes were inevitable, as if the colonies were ordained to win the American Revolution or the Union to prevail in the Civil War. But history is contingent, and the only way to fully appreciate the significance of a given event is to think about what might have happened if things had turned out differently.
At first, I was a little put off by the "What If?" series of books, thinking the essays were probably more like works of science fiction than reliable articles about history. For the most part, I was mistaken, and I recommend this book and its prequels ("What If?" and "What If2?") to anyone seeking a better understanding of some of history's conspicuous turning points.
The essays generally fall into three categories. The first, which I enjoy the most, explain the historical context of a given occurrence and then engage in limited (but very illuminating) speculation about what might have happened if that event hadn't turned out the way it did. Examples of this type include Theodore Rabb's "Might the Mayflower Not Have Sailed" and John Lukac's "No Pearl Harbor?: FDR Delays the War."
Other essays also offer up the historical context but move on to engage in much bolder speculation. An example is Caleb Carr's "William Pitt the Elder and the Avoidance of the American Revolution," which explores a cascade of assumptions about how the 19th and 20th Century would have been different if Britain had kept the 13 colonies (the intriguing conclusion being that the world might have been better off). The problem with this approach is that it assumes that events in the rest of the world would have stayed on more or less the same path notwithstanding a dramatic change in the outcome of the American revolution. This enables Carr to speculate, for example, on a 19th century summit between Disraeli and Bismarck, but I wonder if either of those two persons would have played the same role in history had the events of the late 18th century been dramatically different than what they actually were.
The final type of essay dives right into the counterfactual world without clearly setting out the historical context. Examples are Andrew Roberts "The Whale and the Wolf, " which immediately launches into a history of a hypothetical Anglo-American War of 1896 and Ted Morgan's "Joe McCarthy's Secret Life," a tongue-in-cheek speculation that McCarthy was really a Soviet spy. For my tastes, the problem with these essays is that they spend very little time distinguishing between what did and didn't actually happen, which means that the reader is less likely to learn about history than about the author's speculations.
On the whole, "What Ifs? of American History" is a very entertaining and readable book. If you enjoy it, consider getting the other two "What If" books, as well as Victor David Hanson's "Ripples of Battle" (which shares many features with the "What If?" series).
Rating:
Summary: Very Intresting Thoughts On American History
Review: I have to say that this edition of "What If?" does make you think, especially about what could have happened regarding the history of the U.S. had things gone a diffrent way.
I've found a lot of the senarios presented in this book(particularly the ones on Pearl Harbor, Joe McCarthy and JFK) to be fasciniting and it really does make you think and look back.
I would definitely recommend this book to any fan of history.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing "What Ifs" Indeed
Review: Imagine what the US would be like if the Pilgrims hadn't landed at Plymouth Rock, the Confederacy had won the Civil War, JFK hadn't been assassinated, or the Cuban Missile Crisis had escalated into nuclear war, or even what if the Watergate burglary had never been detected? The essays contained in this book speculate on what might have happened if history had taken a different course in these and other important events in our history.
And they are fascinating essays. They describe a world that might have been. Events like the US delaying in joining World War 2, or how the US would have been viewed by the world after the "Two Days War," in which the USSR was almost totally destroyed, or how the US government would have soldiered on in the mid 1860s if both Lincoln & Johnson had been murdered, as was the original plan.
It's always an interesting and fascinating theory to think about events and how they might have played out differently had the circumstances and chances been different. The authors of the essays in this book have done a marvelous job of portraying their "alternate histories." It's enough to make the reader think "What If" about other numerous historical events not covered
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Summary: What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine Wh
Review: In this illustrated third volume of the "What If" series on conjectural, counterfactual, or imaginary history, editor Cowley once again enlists the assistance of historians David McCullough (on the Battle of Long Island), James McPherson (on General Lee's famous "Lost Order"), and others such as Tom Wicker, Robert Dallek, and Thomas Fleming. Breezy, popular, and yet with some annotations (although no bibliography or index), this compilation entertains and provokes the already informed and whets the general reader's appetite for the would-be past. The essays demonstrate how events influence one another by showing what could have happened rather than judgmentally making a case for what should have occurred. Great for history buffs not quite ready for fiction, it is suitable for public libraries and general academic collections
Rating:
Summary: What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine Wh
Review: In this illustrated third volume of the "What If" series on conjectural, counterfactual, or imaginary history, editor Cowley once again enlists the assistance of historians David McCullough (on the Battle of Long Island), James McPherson (on General Lee's famous "Lost Order"), and others such as Tom Wicker, Robert Dallek, and Thomas Fleming. Breezy, popular, and yet with some annotations (although no bibliography or index), this compilation entertains and provokes the already informed and whets the general reader's appetite for the would-be past. The essays demonstrate how events influence one another by showing what could have happened rather than judgmentally making a case for what should have occurred. Great for history buffs not quite ready for fiction, it is suitable for public libraries and general academic collections
