What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been

What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been | Antony Beevor, Calebert Carr, ... | highly uneven

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What Ifs? of Ameri...

	What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been Antony Beevor, Calebert Carr, ... Putnam Adult, 2003 - 298 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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An all-American collection of essays on the pivotal moments in our nation's history by award-winning historians, the third in the bestselling series.

The "what if" concept is one of the most original and engaging on the current history bookshelf. The essays are chock-full of provocative ideas; they are as accessible to the general reader as they are to the scholar; and they are the perfect gift for the dedicated history buff on anyone's list.

In this new collection of never-before-published essays, our brightest historians speculate about some of America's more intriguing crossroads. Some irresistible highlights include: Caleb Carr (The Alienist) on America had there been no Revolution; Tom Wicker on the first time a vice president, John Tyler, succeeded a deceased president and its surprising ramifications; Jay Winik (April 1865) on the havoc that might have resulted if Booth had succeeded in his plan to assassinate Johnson and Seward as well as Lincoln; Antony Beevor (The Fall of Berlin 1945) on the possibility of Eisenhower's capture of Berlin before the Soviets' arrival there in 1945; and Robert Dallek (the upcoming An Unfinished Life about John F. Kennedy) on one of the most agonizing American "what if"s of all: what might have happened if JFK hadn't been assassinated.

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Great book with one notable omission, possibly two

That omission would be a highly plausible counterfactual of us not entering World War I.

First, in the real world, WWI, as opposed to WWII, had no moral dimension to it, except as Wilson tried to impose it. So, another president could have gone in a different direction, especially one insisting that Britain's blockade by extension (not directly blockading Germany, but instead shipping to neutral countries, and interdicting supplies shipped in excess of prewar transactions, on the grounds that Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands would then transship the excess to Germany) was just as much against international law as Germany's sink-on-sight submarine blockade zones.

Could we have had that "other president"? Absolutely. In fact, we nearly did.

Wilson beat Republican challenger Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 by one of the narrowest electoral vote margins in our history, 277-254. And one state made the difference. If Hughes had gained 4,000 votes in California, he would have won the electoral-college majority, through he lost the popular vote.

Let's say that enough voters are suspicious about Wilson's claims. Let's say that former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who resigned in 1915 after he thought Wilson had gotten too close to war over the Lusitania, takes to the stump to put Wilson on the spot. And Hughes gets those 4,000 votes.

Being from California, let's say he cares less about the European conflict. Not being a Wilsonian, he's also more of a realist on foreign policy. And he holds true to Washington's warning about entangling alliances.

So, after being elected, he announces an embargo program similar to Jefferson in the early 1800s. That alone would have made the British snap to attention.

Don't know why this counterfactual wasn't in the book; it could easily have happened -- more easily than some that made it.]

Our history, and that of the world in general, would have been incredibly different. A negotiated peace would have been likely, although grudging on both sides, on the Western Front, as all parties involved would realize that the outcome would be too much to risk. France and Britain would know they couldn't hold off Germany by the middle of 1918. Meanwhile, if the rest of history had gone according to reality, the Germans would see the war-weariness of their own people, combined with propaganda from the newly-estabished Soviet Union threatening revolution.

All powers in the war sign an armistice as a prelude to peace, then send combined armies east to overthrow Lenin. On the west, France accepts the loss of the rest of Lorraine to Germany, plus, say, Morocco as a colony. Germany also is allowed Luxembourg and, say, one-third of Belgium. Half of the Kingdom of Poland, ruled by the Czar, also goes to Germany. France and England both pay indemnities.

In Russia, an incredibly brutal war ends with one of the more liberal Grand Dukes on the throne of a ravaged country. Ukraine and the Baltics go independent.
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A second, possible one?

The capital isn't in Washington, DC any more. (And, having the capital in the spot where it could have been would have been more likely to keep us out of WWI.)

After the Civil War, Horace Greeley proposed moving the capital west, to St. Louis. St. Louis was almost dead center geographically. Still an important river city, it also had transcontintental railroad connections via the Kansas Pacific to Denver, then jogging up to Cheyenne. The Eads Bridge across the Mississippi would eventually complete the last link.

Feasible to move the capital? More so, if one Civil War-era counterfactual is allowed.

As a war measure, Congress decides to stop work on the Capitol rotunda for the duration.

Greeley then makes his remark soon after the war.

After Grant is elected in 1868, with today's Grant's Farm being located in St. Louis, the idea gains steam.

North and South see it as a healing measure, a symbol of a new start, along with a renewed western focus to our country. With the connection to his land, Grant, and even more so his cronies, blood relative and otherwise, see the opportunity for massive graft.

Washington is a podunk small town. St. Louis is at that time already above 500,000 people.

Sacrilege to abandon the Mall, with all of its monuments and memorials? Nonsense.

The obelisk of the Washington Monument and the original Castle of the Smithsonian are the only two items there.

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highly uneven

Some of the counterfactuals (especially the Civil War ones) were quite informative and/or entertaining; they explained why small changes in history would have mattered, and created vivid alternative histories.

Others were so vague and speculative as to be uninteresting; for example, the essay on the 1960 U-2 incident suggests that the Cold War would have somehow ended earlier had it not occurred. However, the author fails to explain why the detente between a lame-duck President Eisenhower (then in his last year of office) and Khruschev would have been more durable or historically important than the detente of the 1970s between Nixon and Breshnev.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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