What If...? Vol 1, Robert Cowley
What If...? Vol 1, Robert Cowley
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What If...? Vol 1
The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been

Author: Robert Cowley

Narrator: John Cunningham, Janet Zarish

Abridged: 4 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/01/1999


Synopsis

Historians and inquisitive laymen alike love to ponder the dramatic what-ifs of history. In these never-before-published essays, some of the keenest minds of our time ask the big, tantalizing questions: Where might we be if history had not unfolded the way it did? Why, how, and when was our fortune made real? The answers are surprising, sometimes frightening, and always entertaining.

This provocative collection of essays features today's foremost historians speculating on these "what ifs", providing a fascinating new prospective on history's most pivotal events. The essays include:

The Peace of 1914: The World War that Wasn't by Robert Cowley

How Hitler Could Have Won the War: The Drive for the Middle East by John Keegan

Our Midway Disaster: Japan Springs a Trap, June 4, 1942 by Theodore F. Cook

D-Day Fails: Atomic Alternatives in Europe by Stephen E. Ambrose

Funeral in Berlin: The Cold War Turns Hot by David Clay Large

China Without Tears: If Chiang Hadn't Gambled in 1946 by Arthur Waldron
In addition to the essays are fascinating "sidebars" provided by such authors as James Chace, Ted Morgan, and others that illuminate in brief other world-changing episodes.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mauri

Enh. A bit of a disappointment, for all that it took me more than four years to get to it. I skimmed a lot of the essays dealing with earlier history, as there was much moaning about how if such-and-such battle had been lost or so-and-so had died earlier or later then GREEK CIVILIZATION NEVER WOULD......more

Goodreads review by Dale

What if...it were ALL written by top quality writers? The premise of this book is explained by the title. The "What ifs...?" range in time from the failed Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. to an extremely tense period in the Cold War in November of 1983. There are 40 different scenarios in all.......more

Replace “The World’s” in the subtitle with “American and British,” and you have an accurate description of the book. A series of essays, padded with a dozen or so one-page counterfactual presentations. An endlessly fascinating idea with great potential, unfortunately not fully realized. Through 2700......more