Alternate history (fiction)
Encyclopedia
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre
of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history
has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction
, science fiction
, and historical fiction
; different alternate history works may use tropes from any or all of these genres. It is sometimes abbreviated AH. Another occasionally used term for the genre is "allohistory" (literally "other history").
Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has to a large extent merged with science fictional trope
s involving cross-time travel between alternate histories or psychic awareness of the existence of "our" universe by the people in another; or ordinary voyaging uptime (into the past) or downtime (into the future) that results in history splitting into two or more time-lines. Cross-time, time-splitting and alternate history themes have become so closely interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another. "Alternate History" looks at "what if" scenarios from some of history's most pivotal turning points and presents a completely different version, sometimes based on science and fact, but often based on conjecture. The exploration of how the world would look today if various changes occurred and what these alternate worlds would be like forms the basis of this vast subject matter.
In French, Italian, Spanish and German, alternate history novels are called uchronie. This neologism is based on the prefix u- (as in the word utopia
, a place that does not exist) and the Greek for time, chronos. An uchronie, then, is defined as a time that does not exist, a "non-time." This term apparently also inspired the name of the alternate history book list, uchronia.net
.
, alternate history requires three things: 1) the story must have a point of divergence
from the history of our world prior to the time at which the author is writing, 2) a change that would alter history as it is known, and 3) an examination of the ramifications of that change.
Several genres of fiction have been confused as alternate histories. Science fiction set in what was the future but is now the past, like Arthur C. Clarke
's 2001: A Space Odyssey
or Nineteen Eighty-Four
, are not alternate history because the author has not made the conscious choice to change the past. Secret history
, works that document things that are not known to have happened historically but would not have changed history had they happened, is also not to be confused with alternate history.
Alternate history is related to but distinct from counterfactual history—the term used by some professional historians when using thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned speculations on "what might have happened if..." as a tool of academic historical research.
's Ab Urbe condita
. Livy contemplated an alternative 4th century BC in which Alexander the Great expanded his empire westward instead of eastward; Livy asked, "What would have been the results for Rome
if she had been engaged in war with Alexander?"
Joanot Martorell
's 1490 epic
romance
Tirant lo Blanc, written when the loss of Constantinople
to the Turks
was still a recent and traumatic memory to Christian Europe, tells the story of the valiant knight Tirant The White from Brittany who gets to the embattled remnant of the Byzantine Empire
, becomes a Megaduke
and commander of its armies, and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II, save the city from Islamic conquest, and even chase the Turks deeper into lands they had conquered before.
's Histoire de la Monarchie universelle: Napoléon et la conquête du monde (1812–1832) (History of the Universal Monarchy: Napoleon And The Conquest Of The World) (1836), which imagines Napoleon's First French Empire
victorious in the French invasion of Russia
in 1811 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule.
In the English language
, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthorne
's short story
"P.'s Correspondence
", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceiving a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people are still alive such as the poets Burns
, Byron, Shelley
, and Keats
, the actor Edmund Kean
, the British politician George Canning
and even Napoleon Bonaparte
.
The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford
's Aristopia
(1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy
's Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia
discover a reef made of solid gold
and are able to build a Utopia
n society in North America
.
If: A Jacobite Fantasy [1926]). In 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays from some of the leading historians of the period in the anthology If It Had Happened Otherwise
. In this work, scholars from major universities as well as important non-university-based authors turned their attention to such questions as "If the Moors in Spain Had Won" and "If Louis XVI
Had Had an Atom of Firmness". The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loon
's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th century Dutch city state on the island of Manhattan
. Among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc
, André Maurois
, and Winston Churchill
.
One of the entries in Squire's volume was Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg," written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world where the Confederacy
had won the American Civil War
, considering what would have happened if the north had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagining a world more like the real one we live in, although not identical in every detail). This kind of speculative work, which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history".
American humorist author James Thurber
parodied alternate history stories about the American Civil War
in his 1930 story, "If Grant had been drinking at Appomattox", which he accompanied with this very brief introduction: “Scribner's magazine is publishing a series of three articles: ‘If Booth Had Missed Lincoln’, ‘If Lee Had Won the Battle of Gettysburg’, and ‘If Napoleon Had Escaped to America’. This is the fourth”
Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel
from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods
(1923) in which several Englishmen are transferred via an accidental encounter with a cross-time machine into an alternate universe featuring a seemingly pacifistic and utopian Britain. When the Englishmen, led by a satiric figure based on Winston Churchill, try to seize power, the utopians simply point a ray gun at them and send them on to someone else's universe. Wells describes a multiverse
of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with U.S. pulp writers, but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history.
The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner
's "Ancestral Voices," quickly followed by Murray Leinster
's "Sidewise in Time
". While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably straightforward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed a different history.
A somewhat similar approach was taken by Robert A. Heinlein
in his 1941 novelette Elsewhen
. A professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. He then hypnotizes his students so they can explore more of them. Eventually each settles in the reality most suitable for him or her. Some of the worlds they visit are mundane, some very odd, and others follow science fiction or fantasy conventions.
World War II
produced alternate history for propaganda
: both British and American authors wrote works depicting Nazi invasions of their respective countries as cautionary tales.
novel Lest Darkness Fall
by L. Sprague de Camp
where an American academic travels to the Italy
of the Ostrogoths at the time of the Byzantine invasion led by Belisarius
. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternate history. Padway is depicted as making permanent changes and implicitly forming a new time branch.
Time travel as the cause of a point of divergence (creating two histories where before there was one, or simply replacing the future that existed before the time traveling event) has continued to be a popular theme: in Bring the Jubilee
, by Ward Moore
, the protagonist, who lives in an alternate history in which the South won the Civil War, travels through time and brings about a Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg
.
When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used. Such an agency has the grim task of saving civilization every day, every hour, with patrol members—depicted most notably in Poul Anderson
's "Time Patrol"—racing uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history. This is eventually revealed to be the one in which humanity transforms itself into a benevolent super-species that, amongst other achievements, creates time travel to ensure its own existence.
This can lead to terrible moral dilemmas. In Delenda Est
, the interference of time-travelling outlaws causes Carthage
to win the Second Punic War
and destroy Rome
. As a result, there is a completely different 20th century—"not better or worse, just completely different". The hero, Patrol Agent Manse Everard, must return to that period, fight the outlaws and change history back, restoring his (and our) familiar history—but only at the price of totally destroying the world that has taken its place, and which is equally deserving of existence. The stakes are the highest imaginable: billions of lives balanced against other billions of lives, for one man to decide. "Risking your neck in order to negate a world full of people like yourself" is how the hero describes what he eventually undertakes.
A more recent example is Making History by Stephen Fry
, in which a time machine is used to alter history so that Adolf Hitler
was never born. A different leader rose to prominence in Nazi Germany, taking advantage of the economic downturn. This leader turns out to be more intelligent, charismatic and ruthless than Hitler. The outcome of this new leader results in Nazi success in World War II, the extermination of the entire Jewish population, a cold war between Germany and the US, and the prevention of post-war attitude changes that led to the decriminalization of homosexuality and the discrediting of racial segregation.
" (Unknown Fantasy Fiction
, October 1940), in which the hero is repeatedly shifted from one alternate history to another, each more remote from our own than the last.
This subgenre was used early on for purposes far removed from quasi-academic examination of alternative outcomes to historical events. Fredric Brown
employed it to satirize the science fiction pulps and their adolescent readers—and fears of foreign invasion—in the classic What Mad Universe
(1949). In Clifford D. Simak
's Ring Around the Sun
(1953), the hero ends up in an alternate earth of thick forests in which humanity never developed but where a band of mutants is establishing a colony; the story line appears to frame the author's anxieties regarding McCarthyism
and the Cold War
.
Also in the late 1940s and the 1950s, however, writers such as H. Beam Piper
, Sam Merwin, Jr.
and Andre Norton
wrote thrillers set in a multiverse
in which all alternate histories are co-existent and travel between them occurs via a technology involving portals and/or paratime capsules. These authors established the convention of a secret paratime trading empire that exploits and/or protects worlds lacking the paratime technology via a network of James Bond
-style secret agents (Piper called them the "paratime police
").
This concept provided a convenient framing for packing a smorgasbord of historical alternatives (and even of timeline "branches") into a single novel, either via the hero chasing or being chased by the villain(s) through multiple worlds or (less artfully) via discussions between the paratime cops and their superiors (or between paratime agents and new recruits) regarding the histories of such worlds.
The paratime theme is sometimes used without the police; Poul Anderson
dreamed up the Old Phoenix tavern as a nexus between alternate histories. A character from a modern American alternate history Operation Chaos can thus appear in the English Civil War setting of A Midsummer's Tempest. In this context, the distinction between an alternate history and a parallel universe with some points in common but no common history may not be feasible, as the writer may not provide enough information to distinguish.
Paratime thrillers published in recent decades often cite the many-worlds interpretation
of quantum mechanics
(first formulated by Hugh Everett III
in 1957) to account for the differing worlds. Some science fiction writers interpret the splitting of worlds to depend on human decision-making and free will, while others rely on the butterfly effect
from chaos theory
to amplify random differences at the atomic or subatomic level into a macroscopic
divergence at some specific point in history; either way, science fiction writers usually have all changes flow from a particular historical point of divergence (often abbreviated 'POD' by fans of the genre). Prior to Everett, science-fiction writers drew on higher dimensions and the speculations of P. D. Ouspensky
to explain their characters' cross-time journeys.
While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse, the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if the writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When the writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven
's All the Myriad Ways
, where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import.
In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if the total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure
to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch
, a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen." This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan
in his short story The Infinite Assassin, where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of a certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences but he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves.
Many writers—perhaps the majority—avoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
, a Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts the slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved.
The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer
in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland
and Jack Chalker in the 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never-completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched the Crosstime Traffic
series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire.
The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber
's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award
winning The Big Time
(1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith
's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes'
Timeline Wars trilogy in the 1990s.
Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanation—or veneer—for what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston
's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and the "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labeled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night."
In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to a POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation to its existence.
published The Man in the High Castle
, an alternate history in which Nazi Germany
and Imperial Japan won World War II
. This book contained an example of "alternate-alternate" history, in that one of its characters is the author of a book in which the Allies won the war.
It was followed by Vladimir Nabokov
's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
(1969), a story of incest that takes place within an alternate North America settled in part by Czarist Russia, and that borrows from Dick's idea of "alternate-alternate" history (the world of Nabokov's hero is wracked by rumors of a "counter-earth" that apparently is ours). Some critics believe that the references to a counter-earth suggest that the world portrayed in Ada is a delusion in the mind of the hero (another favorite theme of Dick's novels). Strikingly, the characters in Ada seem to acknowledge their own world as the copy or negative version, calling it "Anti-Terra" while its mythical twin is the real "Terra." Not only history but science has followed a divergent path on Anti-Terra: it boasts all the same technology as our world, but all based on water instead of electricity. When a character in Ada makes a long-distance call, all the toilets in the house flush at once to provide hydraulic power.
Isaac Asimov
's short story What If-- is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's 1955 novel The End of Eternity
. In that novel, the "Eternals" can change the realities of the world, without people being aware of it.
Guido Morselli
described the defeat of Italy (and subsequently France) in World War I
in his 1975 novel Past Conditional (Contro-passato prossimo) where the static Alpine frontline which divided Italy from Austria during that war collapses when the Germans and the Austrians forsake trench warfare and adopt blitzkrieg twenty years in advance.
Kingsley Amis
set his 1976 novel The Alteration
in the twentieth century, but major events in the Reformation
did not take place, and Protestantism is limited to the breakaway Republic of New England
. Martin Luther
was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and later became Pope Germanian I.
The Plot Against America
(2004) by Philip Roth
looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt
is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh
is elected, leading to increasing fascism
and anti-Semitism
in the U.S.
Michael Chabon
, also generally not an author of speculative fiction, contributed to the genre with his 2007 novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union
. This book explores a world in which the State of Israel was destroyed in its infancy and many of the world's Jews
instead live in a small strip of Alaska
set aside by the US government for Jewish settlement. The story follows a Jewish detective solving a murder case in the Yiddish-speaking city of Sitka. Stylistically, Chabon borrows heavily from the noir
and detective fiction
genres, while exploring social issues related to Jewish history and culture.
, as well as the development of the steampunk
genre and two series of anthologies—the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford
and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick
. This period also saw alternate history works by S.M. Stirling, Kim Stanley Robinson
, Harry Harrison
, Howard Waldrop
and others.
Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given the title "Master of Alternate History" by some. His books include those of Timeline 191 (a.k.a. Southern Victory), in which Confederate States of America
won the American Civil War
, and the Worldwar series, in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II
. Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh
, in which America
was not colonized from Asia
during the last ice age
; In the Presence of Mine Enemies
, in which the Nazis
won World War II; and Ruled Britannia
, in which the Spanish Armada
succeeded in conquering Britain in the Elizabethan era
, with William Shakespeare
being given the task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish
conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss
The Two Georges
, in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington
and King George III
making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor
but also invaded and occupied the Hawaiian Islands.
Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on worlds in which the Nazis won World War Two
. In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers
conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War
comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. Fatherland
(1992) by Robert Harris
, set in Europe following the Nazi victory, has been widely praised for portraying a more believable society and series of events than most other novels set in a world after a Nazi victory. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future or paratime travel for instance James P. Hogan
's The Proteus Operation
. Norman Spinrad
wrote The Iron Dream
in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler
after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. In Jo Walton
's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and fascism slowly strangled the UK. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
and William R. Forstchen
have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan
but not Germany
in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Fortschen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
, in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg
. Also from that general era, Martin Cruz Smith
, in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970).
Beginning with The Probability Broach
in 1981, L. Neil Smith
wrote several novels that postulated the disintegration of the U.S. Federal Government during the Whiskey Rebellion
and the creation of a libertarian
utopia.
A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted elsewhere to become the unwitting creators of new time branches. These communities are transported from the present (or the near-future) to the past or to another time-line via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S. M. Stirling
wrote the Island in the Sea of Time
trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age
times to become the world's first superpower. In Eric Flint
's 1632 series
, a small town in West Virginia
is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War
, which was then underway. John Birmingham
's Axis of Time
trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against the Empire of Japan
and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons). Similarly, Robert Charles Wilson
's Mysterium depicts a failed U.S. government experiment which transports a small American town into an alternative version of the U.S. run by believers in a form of Christianity known as Gnosticism
, who are engaged in a bitter war with the "Spanish" in Mexico. (The chief scientist at the laboratory where the experiment occurred is described as a Gnostic, and references to Christian Gnosticism appear repeatedly in the book.)
in which the Matter of France
is history, and the fairy folk are real and powerful. A partly familiar European history for which the author provides a point of divergence is Randall Garrett
's "Lord Darcy
" series: a monk systemizing magic rather than science, so the use of foxglove
to treat heart disease is called superstition.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
takes place in an alternative version of England where a separate Kingdom ruled by the Raven King and founded on magic existed in Northumbria for over 300 years. In Patricia Wrede
's Regency fantasies, Great Britain has a Royal Society of Wizards, and in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest
William Shakespeare is remembered as the Great Historian, with the novel itself taking place in the era of Oliver Cromwell
and Charles I
, with an alternate outcome for the English Civil War
and an earlier Industrial Revolution
.
The Tales of Alvin Maker
series by Orson Scott Card
(a parallel to the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
) takes place in an alternate America, beginning in the early 19th century. Prior to that time, a POD occurred: England, under the control of Oliver Cromwell, had banished "makers", or anyone else demonstrating "knacks" (an ability to perform seemingly supernatural feats) to the North American continent. Thus the early American colonists embraced as perfectly ordinary these gifts, and counted on them as a part of their daily lives. The political divisions of the continent is considerably altered, with two large English colonies bookending a smaller "American" nation, one aligned with England, and the other governed by exiled Cavaliers. Actual historical figures are seen in a much different light: Ben Franklin is revered as the continent's finest "maker", George Washington was executed at the hands of an English army, and "Tom" Jefferson is the first president of "Apallachee", the result of a compromise between the Continentals and the British.
On the other hand, when the "Old Ones" still manifest themselves in England in Keith Roberts
's Pavane
, which takes place in a technologically backward world after a Spanish assassination of Elizabeth I allowed the Spanish Armada to conquer England, the possibility that the fairies were real but retreated from modern advances makes the POD possible: the fairies really were present all along, in a secret history. Again, in the English Renaissance fantasy Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, the magic used in the book, by Dr. John Dee
and others, actually was practiced in the Renaissance; positing a secret history of effective magic makes this an alternate history with a POD, Sir Philip Sidney
's surviving the Battle of Zutphen, and shortly thereafter saving the life of Christopher Marlowe
.
Many works of fantasy posit a world in which known practitioners of magic were able to make it function, and where the consequences of such reality would not, in fact, disturb history to such an extent as to make it plainly alternate history. Many ambiguous alternate/secret histories are set in Renaissance or pre-Renaissance times, and may explicitly include a "retreat" from the world, which would explain the current absence of such phenomena.
When the magical version of our world's history is set in contemporary times, the distinction becomes clear between alternate history on the one hand and contemporary fantasy
, using in effect a form of secret history (as when Josepha Sherman
's Son of Darkness has an elf living in New York City, in disguise) on the other. In works such as Robert A. Heinlein
's Magic, Incorporated where a construction company can use magic to rig up stands at a sporting event and Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos and its sequel Operation Luna
, where djinns are serious weapons of war—with atomic bombs—the use of magic throughout the United States and other modern countries makes it clear that this is not secret history—although references in Operation Chaos to degaussing
the effects of cold iron make it possible that it is the result of a POD. The sequel clarifies this as the result of a collaboration of Einstein and Planck in 1901, resulting in the theory of "rheatics". Henry Moseley
applies this theory to "degauss the effects of cold iron and release the goetic forces." This results in the suppression of ferromagnetism
and the reemergence of magic and magical creatures.
Alternate history shades off into other fantasy subgenres when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source; Barry Hughart
's Bridge of Birds
and its sequels take place in a fantasy world
, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as the Empress Wu. Richard Garfinkle
's Celestial Matters
incorporates ancient Chinese physics and Greek Aristotelian physics
, using them as if factual.
A fantasy version of the paratime police was developed by children's writer Diana Wynne Jones
in her Chrestomanci
quartet (1977–1988), with wizards taking the place of high tech secret agents. Among the novels in this series, Witch Week
stands out for its vivid depiction of a history alternate to that of Chrestomanci's own world rather than our own (and yet with a specific POD that turned it away from the "normal" history of most worlds visited by the wizard).
Terry Pratchett's works include several references to alternate histories of Discworld
. Men At Arms
observes that in millions of universes, Edward d'Eath became an obsessive recluse rather than the instigator of the plot that he is in the novel. In Jingo
, Vimes accidentally picks up a pocket organizer that should have gone down another leg of the Trousers of Time, and so can hear the organizer reporting on the deaths that would have occurred had his decision gone otherwise. Indeed, Discworld contains an equivalent of the Time Patrol in its History Monks
. Night Watch revolves around a repair of history after a time traveler's murder of an important figure in Vimes's past. Thief of Time
presents them functioning as a full-scale Time Patrol, ensuring that history occurs at all.
that posited different point of divergence creating an alternate time-line for each episode and dramatized the results along with commentary from various historians. Episodes included changes in the American Civil War, Alexander the Great surviving his illness, an alternate fate for James Wolfe
at Quebec City
, no Julius Caesar
assassination, a different outcome of Aaron Burr
's duel amongst other stories. All episodes have been preserved.
The idea of an alternate history was used for satiric and comedic effect in the BBC Radio comedy Married
. The protagonist, a confirmed bachelor, awakes one morning in a world where he has a wife and two children, and people familiar to him are radically changed. One historical divergence in this world, exploited mostly for comedy, was the decision of King Edward VIII
not to abdicate in 1936. His heirs were a King Richard and a King John, the latter of whom was openly homosexual.
's It Happened Here
(1966), depicting a Nazi-occupied Britain. Other alternate history films include the HBO TV movie Fatherland (1994), set in the 1960s in a world where Germany won World War II, based on Robert Harris
's novel of the same name. Although foretelling a world where Germany is poised to be defeated in World War II, Quentin Tarantino
's Inglourious Basterds offers a satirical revenge fantasy where a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler succeeds.
Alternate histories in film are sometimes presented as mockumentaries to provide verisimilitude
to fictional events, including C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
(2004), a satirical look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War.
Other examples of cinematic alternate history are: 2009 Lost Memories
(2002), a Korean film supposing that Hirobumi Ito was not assassinated by An Jung-geun
in Harbin, China, in 1909; and Timequest
(2002), in which a time traveler prevents the assassination of John F. Kennedy
, resulting in an altered subsequent history.
A few movies about alternative universes focus on individuals rather than historical events, for example, Frank Capra
's It's a Wonderful Life
, and more recently the Back to the Future series of films
, Blind Chance, Sliding Doors
, Run Lola Run
, Me Myself I
, The Butterfly Effect
, Groundhog Day
, Frequency
and Inglourious Basterds.
presented alternate histories under the science-inspired guise of quantum-navigating the multiverse
. The vast majority of alternate Americas in most episodes are nasty dystopias, although sometimes this is not evident at first.
In Lost
, the characters time travel to 1977 past and attempt to create an alternate history. However, while the only intended ramifications were for Flight 815 to land in Los Angeles, instead, it is revealed that their actions were the cause of the crash, ultimately.
Other non-alternate history television shows have explored the concept. Star Trek
has used the theme several times. Examples include: TOS
—"The City on the Edge of Forever" (alternate World War II outcome); Animated Series
—"Yesteryear"; NG
—"Yesterday's Enterprise
", and Enterprise's "Storm Front" Also, the universe of "Mirror, Mirror", while in the original episode was just implied to be a parallel universe
, was in later episodes (of DS9 and Enterprise) shown to have an alternate history.
The British TV series Doctor Who
had a few episodes that involved an alternate Earth where Pete Tyler
, father of Rose Tyler
, was alive, successful, and rich, unlike the Pete Tyler on the original Earth, who died when Rose was a baby and had been unsuccessful in business. The Tenth Doctor
, Rose, and Mickey Smith
visited the alternate Earth by accident in "Rise of the Cybermen
" and "The Age of Steel
". The second season finale "Army of Ghosts
" and "Doomsday
" also involved travel to the same alternate Earth, and the series four episode "Turn Left
" showed an alternate history where the Tenth Doctor has been killed during the Racnoss attack
. During the Third Doctor
's tenure he visited an alternative Earth with a fascist-style British Government that has executed the Royal Family (and fascist counterparts of his friends/companions Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
and Sergeant Benton
) in Inferno
, from which he is able to learn of a danger that also threatens his Earth.
In the seventies SF children's series The Tomorrow People
, "A Stitch in Time" (1974) depicted an attempted historical change by time travel
lers from an alternate-universe Roman Empire
that developed steam engines in the first century, never fell as a result, had a 1,500-year technological head-start over our own world and by its "20th century," controlled a galactic empire.
In the Twilight Zone
episode "The Parallel
," an astronaut is transported to an alternate Earth where history plays out differently, but no-one believes him when he discovers this.
On August 24, 2011, Spike TV
aired a special titled Alternate History, a program speculating what would occur if Nazi Germany
won World War II
and conquered the United States
.
On October 13, 2011, the Community
episode "Remedial Chaos Theory
" includes seven alternate timelines in the lives of the show's seven main characters, dependent on which of the seven went to get the pizza delivered to the apartment.
Various anime
productions have also used the genre:
s. Many games use an alternate historical background for their campaigns. In particular, the fourth edition of GURPS
uses a setting containing multiple different alternate histories as its default campaign setting, with the supplement GURPS Infinite Worlds
detailing a large number of alternate worlds included in the setting, many of them carryovers from the third-edition GURPS supplements GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths II.
. Released in 1996, the game presents a point of divergence in 1946 where Albert Einstein
goes back in time to prevent World War II from ever taking place by erasing Adolf Hitler
from time after he is released from Landsberg Prison
in 1924. He is successful in his mission, but in the process allows Joseph Stalin
and the Soviet Union
to become powerful enough—as a direct result of not having a strong rival dictator like Hitler to keep his power in check—to launch a massive campaign to conquer Europe, sparking an alternate (and ultimately costlier) version of the Second World War and, eventually, World War III not once but twice: one where the USSR invades the continental US in the 1970s, and a second where a small group of Soviet leaders, attempting to preempt their defeat, go back in time and eliminate Einstein but end up in a conflict with both the West and a third Japanese side.
In the Civilization Series
, the player guides a civilization from prehistory to the present day, creating radically altered versions of history on a long time-scale. Several scenarios recreate a particular period which becomes the "point of divergence" in an alternate history shaped by the player's actions. Popular examples in Sid Meier's Civilization IV
include Desert War, set in the Mediterranean theater of World War II
and featuring scripted events tied to possible outcomes of battles; Broken Star, set in a hypothetical Russian civil war in 2010; and Rhye's and Fall of Civilization
, an 'Earth simulator' designed to mirror a history as closely as possible but incorporating unpredictable elements to provide realistic alternate settings.
Crimson Skies
is one example of an alternate history spawning multiple interpretations in multiple genres. The stories and games in Crimson Skies take place in an alternate 1930s United States
, where the nation crumbled into many hostile states following the effects of the Great Depression
, the Great War
, and Prohibition
. With the road and railway system destroyed, commerce took to the skies. Great cargo zeppelin
s escorted by fighter squadrons are the targets of many ruthless air pirates and enemy countries. This world has featured in a board game, a PC game, an Xbox
game, a collectible miniature game and various promotional novels, comics and short stories.
The game Freedom Fighters
portrays a situation similar to that of the movie Red Dawn
and Red Alert 2, though less comically than the latter. The point of divergence is during World War II
, where the Soviet Union
develops an atomic bomb first and uses it on Berlin
. With the balance of power and influence tipped in Russia's favor, history diverges; brief summaries at the beginning of the game inform the player of the Communist bloc's complete takeover of Europe by 1953, a different ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis
, and the spread of Soviet influence into South America and Mexico. The plot of the game revolves around a Soviet invasion of the United States and the resistance fighting in New York City.
Similarly, the 2007 video game World in Conflict
is set in 1989, with the Soviet Union
on the verge of collapse. The point of divergence is several months before the opening of the game, when Warsaw Pact
forces staged a desperate invasion of Western Europe. As the game begins, a Soviet invasion force lands in Seattle, taking advantage of the fact that most of the US military is in Europe. The game is divided into three parts: the first focuses on the fighting retreat from Seattle towards Fort Teller in the Cascade Mountains; the second is a flashback to the recent fighting in Europe, which culminated in a Soviet attack on Manhattan
; the third chronicles the fight to retake Seattle before a Chinese
fleet arrives, which could force the US President to destroy the invaders with a nuclear strike.
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, released in February 2008, is an alternate history first person shooter where Winston Churchill
died in 1931 from being hit by a taxi cab. Because of this, Great Britain
lacks the charismatic leader needed to keep the country together and Nazi Germany
successfully conquers Great Britain via Operation Sealion
. Germany later conquers the rest of Europe and North Africa while mass-producing their wunderwaffe
. The Axis
launch a surprise invasion of an isolationist United States in 1953, which forces the country to surrender and submit to a puppet government. The game's main character is a member of a resistance force against the Germans.
Another alternate history game involving Nazis is War Front: Turning Point
in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of World War II and thus, a much more effective leadership rose to power. Under the command of a new Führer (who is referred to as "Chancellor", and his real name is never revealed), Operation Sealion
succeeds and the Nazis successfully conquer Britain, sparking a cold war between the Allied Powers and Germany.
Another example of alternate history is the Resistance series
of first-person shooter games. The point of divergence is in the years following World War I, where an isolationist Russian Empire - and later, Western Europe - is conquered by an alien race called the Chimera. The aliens later invade the United States.
The Fallout Series of computer role-playing games is set in a divergent America, where history after World War II diverges from the real world to follow a retro-futuristic timeline. For example, fusion power
was invented quite soon after the end of the war, but the transistor
was either delayed or never was developed. The result was a future that has a 1950s 'World of Tomorrow' feel to it, with extremely high technology such as artificial intelligence
implemented with thermionic valves and other technologies now considered obsolete.
Iron Storm is a first person shooter set in 1964, where the Great War
still continues and international corporations sell stocks as if "betting" on an outcome. Since profits are so great, they continually press for stalemate to keep the conflict in an ongoing cycle of minor advances and losses.
, which is set in a world where the Confederate States of America won its independence and has created a Captain America
-type superhero for propaganda purposes.
Influential comic writers have also used an alternate history as the background to their story. Alan Moore
's 1986 comic series Watchmen
is set in an alternate United States that not only has costumed adventurers as commonplace fixtures within American society, but also contains other alternate history elements including an American "victory" in the Vietnam War
and Richard Nixon
serving five terms as president. Warren Ellis
's 2001 comic mini-series
Ministry of Space
features a British space program that had its foundation in the United Kingdom's recovery of scientists and technology at the German rocket installations in Peenemünde
ahead of the US Army and the Soviets.
There have also been alternative history webcomics like Roswell, Texas, which diverges when Davy Crockett
survived the Alamo
, leading to the expansion of Texas.
Marvel
and DC
have their own titles where they can tell alternative stories based on their own characters (What If...?
and Elseworlds
, respectively). Most set the stories in different times or base them on different genres with some based on a divergence in their fictional history, such as the Age of Apocalypse
, where Professor X being killed accidentally in the past led to Apocalypse taking over America.
The time travelling Marvel Comics villain Kang the Conquerer has created alternate realities and different versions of himself due to his time travelling. However after stumbling into Limbo he succeeds in eliminating all the other versions of himself. Later his Future counterpart Immortus
becomes an alternate version of himself.
However, some are genuine alternate histories, with Batman: Holy Terror
based on the premise that Oliver Cromwell
lived for another decade. Some of the newer DC Multiverse alternate Earths could be legitimately described as alternate histories. On Earth-9, the emergence of metahumans led to a limited nuclear exchange ("the Cuban War") in 1962, leading to the destruction of Florida
and Cuba
, US intervention during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1967 and the survival of the USSR into the nineties (see Tangent Comics
.). On Earth-10, Nazi Germany won the Second World War. On Earth-17, the United States and USSR fought a thermonuclear World War III in 1986, with some human survivors. On Earth-30, the Soviet Union
won the Cold War
due to the technological boost provided by Superman
, whose vehicle landed in the Ukraine
, instead of Kansas (see Superman: Red Son
).
In 2009, Bryan Talbot
created Grandville
, a graphic novel
set in a world mostly populated by anthropomorphic
animals, in which France won the Napoleonic Wars
, invaded Britain and guillotine
d the British Royal Family
. Grandville also features elements of steampunk
.
In 1978, "The Sentinels", one of the first serials in UK girls' comic Misty
, featured an alternate world where Nazi Germany
conquered Britain in 1940. The alternate world was connected with the mainstream world via two apartment blocks called "The Sentinels". People kept stumbling in from both sides, causing terror over unexplained disappearances and worse, mix-ups over parallel world doubles. This culminated in the Gestapo mistakenly arresting a man from the mainstream world and people from both worlds uniting for the rescue mission.
is an online database that contains 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material, in several different languages. Twice Uchronia was selected as the Sci Fi Channel
's "Sci Fi Site of the Week."
Collaborative attempts by several amateur writers have also led to notable accomplishments. The contributors at Ill Bethisad
have made two constructed language
s: Brithenig
and Wenedyk
.
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction
Literary fiction
Literary fiction is a term that came into common usage during the early 1960s. The term is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction . In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, and historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
; different alternate history works may use tropes from any or all of these genres. It is sometimes abbreviated AH. Another occasionally used term for the genre is "allohistory" (literally "other history").
Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has to a large extent merged with science fictional trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
s involving cross-time travel between alternate histories or psychic awareness of the existence of "our" universe by the people in another; or ordinary voyaging uptime (into the past) or downtime (into the future) that results in history splitting into two or more time-lines. Cross-time, time-splitting and alternate history themes have become so closely interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another. "Alternate History" looks at "what if" scenarios from some of history's most pivotal turning points and presents a completely different version, sometimes based on science and fact, but often based on conjecture. The exploration of how the world would look today if various changes occurred and what these alternate worlds would be like forms the basis of this vast subject matter.
In French, Italian, Spanish and German, alternate history novels are called uchronie. This neologism is based on the prefix u- (as in the word utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
, a place that does not exist) and the Greek for time, chronos. An uchronie, then, is defined as a time that does not exist, a "non-time." This term apparently also inspired the name of the alternate history book list, uchronia.net
Uchronia: The Alternate History List
Uchronia: The Alternate History List is an online general-interest book database containing a bibliography of over 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material. It is owned and operated by Robert B. Schmunk...
.
Definition
In writing an alternate history, the author makes the conscious choice to change something in our past. According to Steven H SilverSteven H Silver
Steven H Silver is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer ten times and Best Fanzine three times without winning....
, alternate history requires three things: 1) the story must have a point of divergence
Point of divergence
In discussion of counterfactual history, a divergence point , also referred to as a departure point or point of divergence , is a historical event with two possible postulated outcomes...
from the history of our world prior to the time at which the author is writing, 2) a change that would alter history as it is known, and 3) an examination of the ramifications of that change.
Several genres of fiction have been confused as alternate histories. Science fiction set in what was the future but is now the past, like Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film...
or Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, are not alternate history because the author has not made the conscious choice to change the past. Secret history
Secret history
A secret history is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.-Secret histories of the real world:...
, works that document things that are not known to have happened historically but would not have changed history had they happened, is also not to be confused with alternate history.
Alternate history is related to but distinct from counterfactual history—the term used by some professional historians when using thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned speculations on "what might have happened if..." as a tool of academic historical research.
Antiquity and Medieval
The earliest example of an alternate history is Book IX, sections 17–19, of LivyLivy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
's Ab Urbe condita
Ab Urbe condita (book)
Ab urbe condita libri — often shortened to Ab urbe condita — is a monumental history of ancient Rome written in Latin sometime between 27 and 25 BC by the historian Titus Livius. The work covers the time from the stories of Aeneas, the earliest legendary period from before the city's founding in c....
. Livy contemplated an alternative 4th century BC in which Alexander the Great expanded his empire westward instead of eastward; Livy asked, "What would have been the results for Rome
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
if she had been engaged in war with Alexander?"
Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell was a Valencian knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian...
's 1490 epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
Tirant lo Blanc, written when the loss of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
to the Turks
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
was still a recent and traumatic memory to Christian Europe, tells the story of the valiant knight Tirant The White from Brittany who gets to the embattled remnant of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, becomes a Megaduke
Megas Doux
The megas doux was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of the later Byzantine Empire, denoting the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. It is sometimes also given by the half-Latinizations megaduke or megadux...
and commander of its armies, and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II, save the city from Islamic conquest, and even chase the Turks deeper into lands they had conquered before.
19th century
One of the earliest works of alternate history published in large quantities for the reception of a popular audience may be the French Louis GeoffroyLouis Geoffroy
Louis Geoffroy was the pseudonym of Louis-Napoléon Geoffroy-Château, a French writer who penned a one of the earliest works of work of alternate history: Histoire de la Monarchie universelle: Napoléon et la conquête du monde [Napoleon And The Conquest Of The World] .In it Napoleon subdues Russia...
's Histoire de la Monarchie universelle: Napoléon et la conquête du monde (1812–1832) (History of the Universal Monarchy: Napoleon And The Conquest Of The World) (1836), which imagines Napoleon's First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
victorious in the French invasion of Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
in 1811 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule.
In the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"P.'s Correspondence
P.'s Correspondence
"P.'s Correspondence" is a 1845 short story by the 19th century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, constituting a pioneering work of alternate history. Some consider it the very first such work in the English language...
", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceiving a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people are still alive such as the poets Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
, Byron, Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
, and Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
, the actor Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.-Early life:Kean was born in London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey...
, the British politician George Canning
George Canning
George Canning PC, FRS was a British statesman and politician who served as Foreign Secretary and briefly Prime Minister.-Early life: 1770–1793:...
and even Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
.
The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford
Castello Holford
Castello Holford was an American writer best known for writing Aristopia in 1895. It is perhaps the first true alternative history novel to be written in English and imagines a utopian society founded by the first settlers of Virginia ....
's Aristopia
Aristopia
Aristopia: A Romance-History of the New World is an 1895 utopian novel by Castello Holford, considered the first novel-length alternate history in English ....
(1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy
Louis Geoffroy
Louis Geoffroy was the pseudonym of Louis-Napoléon Geoffroy-Château, a French writer who penned a one of the earliest works of work of alternate history: Histoire de la Monarchie universelle: Napoléon et la conquête du monde [Napoleon And The Conquest Of The World] .In it Napoleon subdues Russia...
's Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
discover a reef made of solid gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and are able to build a Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n society in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Early 20th century and the era of the pulps
A number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 19th century and early 20th century (see, for example, Charles Petrie'sCharles Petrie
Sir Charles Alexander Petrie, 3rd Baronet was a popular historian. Of Irish lineage, but born in Liverpool, he was educated at Oxford, and in 1927 succeeded to the family baronetcy....
If: A Jacobite Fantasy [1926]). In 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays from some of the leading historians of the period in the anthology If It Had Happened Otherwise
If It Had Happened Otherwise
If It Had Happened Otherwise is a 1931 collection of essays edited by J. C. Squire and published by Longmans, Green. Each essay in the collection could be considered alternate history or counterfactual history, a few written by leading historians of the period and one by Winston...
. In this work, scholars from major universities as well as important non-university-based authors turned their attention to such questions as "If the Moors in Spain Had Won" and "If Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
Had Had an Atom of Firmness". The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loon
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Hendrik Willem van Loon was a Dutch-American historian and journalist.-Life:He was born in Rotterdam, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and Elisabeth Johanna Hanken. He went to the United States in 1902 to study at Cornell University, receiving his degree in 1905...
's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th century Dutch city state on the island of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
, André Maurois
André Maurois
André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog was a French author.-Life:Maurois was born in Elbeuf and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen, both in Normandy. Maurois was the son of Ernest Herzog, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and Alice Herzog...
, and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
.
One of the entries in Squire's volume was Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg," written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world where the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
had won the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, considering what would have happened if the north had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagining a world more like the real one we live in, although not identical in every detail). This kind of speculative work, which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history".
American humorist author James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
parodied alternate history stories about the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in his 1930 story, "If Grant had been drinking at Appomattox", which he accompanied with this very brief introduction: “Scribner's magazine is publishing a series of three articles: ‘If Booth Had Missed Lincoln’, ‘If Lee Had Won the Battle of Gettysburg’, and ‘If Napoleon Had Escaped to America’. This is the fourth”
Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel
Time travel in fiction
Time travel is a common theme in science fiction and is depicted in a variety of media. It simply means either going forward in time or backward, to experience the future, or the past.-Literature:...
from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods
Men Like Gods
Men Like Gods is a novel written in 1923 by H. G. Wells. It features a utopian parallel universe.-Plot summary :The hero of the novel, Mr. Barnstaple, is a depressive journalist working for a newspaper called the Liberal. At the beginning of the story, Barnstaple, as well as a few other...
(1923) in which several Englishmen are transferred via an accidental encounter with a cross-time machine into an alternate universe featuring a seemingly pacifistic and utopian Britain. When the Englishmen, led by a satiric figure based on Winston Churchill, try to seize power, the utopians simply point a ray gun at them and send them on to someone else's universe. Wells describes a multiverse
Multiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with U.S. pulp writers, but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history.
The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner
Nat Schachner
Nat Schachner , also appearing as "Nathan Schachner" and under other bylines, was an American author. His first published story was "The Tower of Evil," written in collaboration with Arthur Leo Zagat and appearing in the Summer 1930 issue of Wonder Stories Quarterly...
's "Ancestral Voices," quickly followed by Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history...
's "Sidewise in Time
Sidewise in Time
"Sidewise in Time" is a science fiction short story by Murray Leinster that was first published in the June 1934 issue of Astounding Stories...
". While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably straightforward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed a different history.
A somewhat similar approach was taken by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
in his 1941 novelette Elsewhen
Elsewhen
Elsewhen is a novella by Robert A. Heinlein, concerning time travel and parallel universes. It is collected in the 1953 book Assignment in Eternity but was first published in 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction....
. A professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. He then hypnotizes his students so they can explore more of them. Eventually each settles in the reality most suitable for him or her. Some of the worlds they visit are mundane, some very odd, and others follow science fiction or fantasy conventions.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
produced alternate history for propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
: both British and American authors wrote works depicting Nazi invasions of their respective countries as cautionary tales.
Time travel as a means of creating historical divergences
The period around the second World War also saw the publication of the time travelTime travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
novel Lest Darkness Fall
Lest Darkness Fall
Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by author L. Sprague de Camp. The book is often considered one of the best examples of the alternate history genre; it is certainly one of the most influential...
by L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
where an American academic travels to the Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
of the Ostrogoths at the time of the Byzantine invasion led by Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....
. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternate history. Padway is depicted as making permanent changes and implicitly forming a new time branch.
Time travel as the cause of a point of divergence (creating two histories where before there was one, or simply replacing the future that existed before the time traveling event) has continued to be a popular theme: in Bring the Jubilee
Bring the Jubilee
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a 1953 novel of alternate history. The point of divergence occurs when the Confederate States of America wins the Battle of Gettysburg and subsequently declares victory in the "War of Southron Independence" on July 4, 1864 after the surrender of the United States...
, by Ward Moore
Ward Moore
Ward Moore was the working name of American author Joseph Ward Moore. Moore grew up in New York City, and later moved to Chicago, and then to California....
, the protagonist, who lives in an alternate history in which the South won the Civil War, travels through time and brings about a Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
.
When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used. Such an agency has the grim task of saving civilization every day, every hour, with patrol members—depicted most notably in Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
's "Time Patrol"—racing uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history. This is eventually revealed to be the one in which humanity transforms itself into a benevolent super-species that, amongst other achievements, creates time travel to ensure its own existence.
This can lead to terrible moral dilemmas. In Delenda Est
Delenda Est
"Delenda Est" is a short story written by Poul Anderson, part of his Time Patrol series. The title alludes to the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est from the Third Punic War.-Plot summary:...
, the interference of time-travelling outlaws causes Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
to win the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
and destroy Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. As a result, there is a completely different 20th century—"not better or worse, just completely different". The hero, Patrol Agent Manse Everard, must return to that period, fight the outlaws and change history back, restoring his (and our) familiar history—but only at the price of totally destroying the world that has taken its place, and which is equally deserving of existence. The stakes are the highest imaginable: billions of lives balanced against other billions of lives, for one man to decide. "Risking your neck in order to negate a world full of people like yourself" is how the hero describes what he eventually undertakes.
A more recent example is Making History by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, in which a time machine is used to alter history so that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was never born. A different leader rose to prominence in Nazi Germany, taking advantage of the economic downturn. This leader turns out to be more intelligent, charismatic and ruthless than Hitler. The outcome of this new leader results in Nazi success in World War II, the extermination of the entire Jewish population, a cold war between Germany and the US, and the prevention of post-war attitude changes that led to the decriminalization of homosexuality and the discrediting of racial segregation.
Cross-time stories
H.G. Wells' "cross-time"/"many universes" variant (see above) was fully developed by De Camp in his 1940 short story "The Wheels of IfThe Wheels of If
"The Wheels of If" is a classic alternate history science fiction story by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Unknown Fantasy Fiction for October, 1940, and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection The Wheels of If and Other Science Fiction...
" (Unknown Fantasy Fiction
Unknown (magazine)
Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and...
, October 1940), in which the hero is repeatedly shifted from one alternate history to another, each more remote from our own than the last.
This subgenre was used early on for purposes far removed from quasi-academic examination of alternative outcomes to historical events. Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
employed it to satirize the science fiction pulps and their adolescent readers—and fears of foreign invasion—in the classic What Mad Universe
What Mad Universe
What Mad Universe is a science-fiction novel, written in 1949 by the American author, Fredric Brown.-Synopsis:Keith Winton is a journalist for a science-fiction review. With his glamorous co-worker girlfriend, Betty, he visits his friends one day in their elegant estate in the Catskills,...
(1949). In Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977.-Biography:Clifford Donald Simak was born in...
's Ring Around the Sun
Ring Around the Sun (novel)
Ring Around the Sun is 1953 novel by Clifford D. Simak. It tells the story of an "alien" invasion and how they attempt to sap Earth economy by introducing disruptive devices at a ridiculously low price, like the Forever Car....
(1953), the hero ends up in an alternate earth of thick forests in which humanity never developed but where a band of mutants is establishing a colony; the story line appears to frame the author's anxieties regarding McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
and the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Also in the late 1940s and the 1950s, however, writers such as H. Beam Piper
H. Beam Piper
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper...
, Sam Merwin, Jr.
Sam Merwin, Jr.
Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author, who published fiction mostly as Sam Merwin, Jr. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.-Biography:He was born on April 28, 1910 in...
and Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
wrote thrillers set in a multiverse
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
in which all alternate histories are co-existent and travel between them occurs via a technology involving portals and/or paratime capsules. These authors established the convention of a secret paratime trading empire that exploits and/or protects worlds lacking the paratime technology via a network of James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
-style secret agents (Piper called them the "paratime police
Paratime series
The Paratime series written by H. Beam Piper consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel; they deal with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories, and uses that ability to trade for goods and services their own, exhausted...
").
This concept provided a convenient framing for packing a smorgasbord of historical alternatives (and even of timeline "branches") into a single novel, either via the hero chasing or being chased by the villain(s) through multiple worlds or (less artfully) via discussions between the paratime cops and their superiors (or between paratime agents and new recruits) regarding the histories of such worlds.
The paratime theme is sometimes used without the police; Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
dreamed up the Old Phoenix tavern as a nexus between alternate histories. A character from a modern American alternate history Operation Chaos can thus appear in the English Civil War setting of A Midsummer's Tempest. In this context, the distinction between an alternate history and a parallel universe with some points in common but no common history may not be feasible, as the writer may not provide enough information to distinguish.
Paratime thrillers published in recent decades often cite the many-worlds interpretation
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
(first formulated by Hugh Everett III
Hugh Everett
Hugh Everett III was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation....
in 1957) to account for the differing worlds. Some science fiction writers interpret the splitting of worlds to depend on human decision-making and free will, while others rely on the butterfly effect
Butterfly effect
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state...
from chaos theory
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
to amplify random differences at the atomic or subatomic level into a macroscopic
Macroscopic
The macroscopic scale is the length scale on which objects or processes are of a size which is measurable and observable by the naked eye.When applied to phenomena and abstract objects, the macroscopic scale describes existence in the world as we perceive it, often in contrast to experiences or...
divergence at some specific point in history; either way, science fiction writers usually have all changes flow from a particular historical point of divergence (often abbreviated 'POD' by fans of the genre). Prior to Everett, science-fiction writers drew on higher dimensions and the speculations of P. D. Ouspensky
P. D. Ouspensky
Peter D. Ouspensky , , a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915.He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with...
to explain their characters' cross-time journeys.
While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse, the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if the writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When the writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
's All the Myriad Ways
All the Myriad Ways
All the Myriad Ways is a collection of 14 short stories and essays by science fiction author Larry Niven, originally published in 1971.-Contents:* "All the Myriad Ways"* "Passerby"* "For a Foggy Night"* "Wait it Out"* "The Jigsaw Man"...
, where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import.
In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if the total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure
Measure (mathematics)
In mathematical analysis, a measure on a set is a systematic way to assign to each suitable subset a number, intuitively interpreted as the size of the subset. In this sense, a measure is a generalization of the concepts of length, area, and volume...
to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch
David Deutsch
David Elieser Deutsch, FRS is an Israeli-British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a non-stipendiary Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford...
, a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen." This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan
Greg Egan
Greg Egan is an Australian science fiction author.Egan published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness...
in his short story The Infinite Assassin, where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of a certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences but he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves.
Many writers—perhaps the majority—avoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is a 1965 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper and is part of his Kalvan series of stories, which is part of his larger Paratime series. It recounts the adventures of a Pennsylvania state trooper who is accidentally transported to a more backward parallel universe...
, a Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts the slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved.
The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer
Keith Laumer
John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a U.S. diplomat...
in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland
Michael Kurland
Michael Joseph Kurland is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction....
and Jack Chalker in the 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never-completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched the Crosstime Traffic
Crosstime Traffic
Crosstime Traffic is a series of books by Harry Turtledove. The central premise of the stories is an Earth that has discovered access to alternate universes where history went differently. "Crosstime Traffic" is the name of the company with a global monopoly on the technology.-Background:The...
series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire.
The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
winning The Big Time
The Big Time
The Big Time is a short science fiction novel by Fritz Leiber. It won the Hugo Award in 1958.The Big Time is a vast, cosmic back story, hidden behind a claustrophobic front story with only a few characters.-Plot:...
(1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith
Richard C. Meredith
Richard Carlton Meredith , also known as Richard C. Meredith, was a science fiction author.-Biography:...
's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes'
John Barnes (author)
-Writing:Two of his novels, The Sky So Big and Black and The Duke of Uranium have been reviewed as having content appropriate for a young adult readership, comparing favorably to Robert A. Heinlein's "juvenile" novels...
Timeline Wars trilogy in the 1990s.
Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanation—or veneer—for what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston
Aaron Allston
Aaron Allston is an American game designer and novelist of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for several role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's...
's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and the "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labeled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night."
In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to a POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation to its existence.
Major writers explore alternate histories
In 1962, Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
published The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle is a science fiction alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It won a Hugo Award in 1963 and has since been translated into many languages....
, an alternate history in which Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Imperial Japan won World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. This book contained an example of "alternate-alternate" history, in that one of its characters is the author of a book in which the Allies won the war.
It was followed by Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1969.Ada began to materialize in 1959, when Nabokov was flirting with two projects: "The Texture of Time" and "Letters from Terra." In 1965, he began to see a link between the two ideas, finally composing a unified novel...
(1969), a story of incest that takes place within an alternate North America settled in part by Czarist Russia, and that borrows from Dick's idea of "alternate-alternate" history (the world of Nabokov's hero is wracked by rumors of a "counter-earth" that apparently is ours). Some critics believe that the references to a counter-earth suggest that the world portrayed in Ada is a delusion in the mind of the hero (another favorite theme of Dick's novels). Strikingly, the characters in Ada seem to acknowledge their own world as the copy or negative version, calling it "Anti-Terra" while its mythical twin is the real "Terra." Not only history but science has followed a divergent path on Anti-Terra: it boasts all the same technology as our world, but all based on water instead of electricity. When a character in Ada makes a long-distance call, all the toilets in the house flush at once to provide hydraulic power.
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's short story What If-- is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's 1955 novel The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel, with mystery and thriller elements, on the subjects of time travel and social engineering....
. In that novel, the "Eternals" can change the realities of the world, without people being aware of it.
Guido Morselli
Guido Morselli
-Life:Guido Morselli was born in Bologna, the second son of a well-to-do family belonging to Bolognese bourgeoisie. Giovanni, his father, was a manager of Carlo Erba, a pharmaceutical firm, while his mother, Olga Vincenzi, was the daughter of one of the most prestigious lawyers in Bologna. The...
described the defeat of Italy (and subsequently France) in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in his 1975 novel Past Conditional (Contro-passato prossimo) where the static Alpine frontline which divided Italy from Austria during that war collapses when the Germans and the Austrians forsake trench warfare and adopt blitzkrieg twenty years in advance.
Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
set his 1976 novel The Alteration
The Alteration
The Alteration is a 1976 alternate history novel by Kingsley Amis, set in a parallel universe in which the Reformation did not take place. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1977.-Creative origins:...
in the twentieth century, but major events in the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
did not take place, and Protestantism is limited to the breakaway Republic of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and later became Pope Germanian I.
The Plot Against America
The Plot Against America
The Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternate history in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh.-Plot introduction:...
(2004) by Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
is elected, leading to increasing fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in the U.S.
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
, also generally not an author of speculative fiction, contributed to the genre with his 2007 novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in...
. This book explores a world in which the State of Israel was destroyed in its infancy and many of the world's Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
instead live in a small strip of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
set aside by the US government for Jewish settlement. The story follows a Jewish detective solving a murder case in the Yiddish-speaking city of Sitka. Stylistically, Chabon borrows heavily from the noir
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
and detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
genres, while exploring social issues related to Jewish history and culture.
Contemporary alternate history in popular literature
The late 1980s and the 1990s saw a boom in popular-fiction versions of alternate history, fueled by the emergence of the prolific alternate history author Harry TurtledoveHarry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
, as well as the development of the steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
genre and two series of anthologies—the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine...
and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick
Mike Resnick
Michael Diamond Resnick , better known by his published name Mike Resnick, is an American science fiction author. He was executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe.-Biography:...
. This period also saw alternate history works by S.M. Stirling, Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
, Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
, Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop
Howard Waldrop is a science fiction author who works primarily in short fiction.Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American South, old movies , classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical...
and others.
Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given the title "Master of Alternate History" by some. His books include those of Timeline 191 (a.k.a. Southern Victory), in which Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
won the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, and the Worldwar series, in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh
A Different Flesh
A Different Flesh is a collection of alternate history short stories by Harry Turtledove set in a world in which Homo erectus and various megafauna survived in the Americas instead of Native Americans....
, in which America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
was not colonized from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
during the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
; In the Presence of Mine Enemies
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
In the Presence of Mine Enemies is an alternate history novel by American author Harry Turtledove, expanded from the eponymous short story. The novel depicts a world where the United States remained isolationist and did not participate in the Second World War, thus allowing victory to the Axis...
, in which the Nazis
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
won World War II; and Ruled Britannia
Ruled Britannia
Ruled Britannia is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove, first published in hardcover and paperback by Roc Books in 2002.-Plot introduction :The book is set in the year 1597, in an alternate universe where the Spanish Armada is successful...
, in which the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...
succeeded in conquering Britain in the Elizabethan era
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
, with William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
being given the task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
The Two Georges
The Two Georges
The Two Georges is an alternate history novel co-written by science fiction author Harry Turtledove and Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss...
, in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
and King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
but also invaded and occupied the Hawaiian Islands.
Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on worlds in which the Nazis won World War Two
Axis victory in World War II
An Axis victory in World War II is a common concept in alternate history. World War II alternate histories are one of the two most popular points of divergence in the English language...
. In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. Fatherland
Fatherland (novel)
Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain...
(1992) by Robert Harris
Robert Harris (novelist)
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
, set in Europe following the Nazi victory, has been widely praised for portraying a more believable society and series of events than most other novels set in a world after a Nazi victory. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future or paratime travel for instance James P. Hogan
James P. Hogan (writer)
James Patrick Hogan was a British science fiction author.-Biography:Hogan was born in London, England. He was raised in the Portobello Road area on the west side of London...
's The Proteus Operation
The Proteus Operation
The Proteus Operation is a science fiction novel which was written by James P. Hogan and published in 1985. Alternate history, time travel, and parallel universes form the basis of its plot, in which a group of military commandos, diplomats, and scientists travel back to 1939...
. Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad is an American science fiction author.Born in New York City, Spinrad is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. In 1957 he entered City College of New York and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree as a pre-law major. In 1966 he moved to San Francisco,...
wrote The Iron Dream
The Iron Dream
The Iron Dream is a metafictional 1972 alternate history novel by Norman Spinrad.The book has a nested narrative that tells a story within a story. On the surface, the novel presents an unexceptional pulp, post-apocalypse science fiction action tale entitled Lord of the Swastika...
in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. In Jo Walton
Jo Walton
Jo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Ha'penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award...
's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and fascism slowly strangled the UK. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
and William R. Forstchen
William R. Forstchen
William R. Forstchen is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina...
have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
but not Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Fortschen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War is an alternate history novel written by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. It was published in 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. It is the first part in a trilogy in which the next books are respectively Grant Comes East and Never Call...
, in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
. Also from that general era, Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
, in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970).
Beginning with The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach is the first novel by science fiction writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called Gallatin Universe, where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled the North American Confederacy.-Plot summary:Edward William "Win"...
in 1981, L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith , also known to readers and fans as El Neil, is a libertarian science fiction author and political activist. He was born on May 12, 1946 in Denver...
wrote several novels that postulated the disintegration of the U.S. Federal Government during the Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in the 1790s, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented...
and the creation of a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
utopia.
A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted elsewhere to become the unwitting creators of new time branches. These communities are transported from the present (or the near-future) to the past or to another time-line via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S. M. Stirling
S. M. Stirling
Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.-Personal:Stirling was born on...
wrote the Island in the Sea of Time
Island in the Sea of Time
Island in the Sea of Time is the first of the three alternate history novels of the Nantucket series by S. M. Stirling.-Plot summary:An elliptical region, including the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts and the United States Coast Guard ship Eagle, is transported by an unknown phenomenon back in...
trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
times to become the world's first superpower. In Eric Flint
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
's 1632 series
1632 series
The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series and sub-series created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by Eric Flint and published by Baen Books...
, a small town in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, which was then underway. John Birmingham
John Birmingham
John Birmingham is an Australian author. Birmingham was born in Liverpool, England and migrated to Australia with his parents in 1970.-Early life and career:...
's Axis of Time
Axis of Time
The Axis of Time trilogy is an alternate history series of novels written by Australian journalist and author John Birmingham, from Macmillan Publishing.-Plot:...
trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons). Similarly, Robert Charles Wilson
Robert Charles Wilson
Robert Charles Wilson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.Wilson was born in the United States in California, but grew up near Toronto, Ontario. Apart from another short period in the early 1970s spent in Whittier, California, he has lived most of his life in Canada, and in 2007 he...
's Mysterium depicts a failed U.S. government experiment which transports a small American town into an alternative version of the U.S. run by believers in a form of Christianity known as Gnosticism
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
, who are engaged in a bitter war with the "Spanish" in Mexico. (The chief scientist at the laboratory where the experiment occurred is described as a Gnostic, and references to Christian Gnosticism appear repeatedly in the book.)
Alternate history in the contemporary fantasy genre
Many fantasies and science fantasies are set in a world that has a history somewhat similar to our own world, but with magic added. Some posit points of divergence, but some also feature magic altering history all along. One example of a universe that is in part historically recognizable but also obeys different physical laws is Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three LionsThree Hearts and Three Lions
Three Hearts and Three Lions is a 1961 fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It is also a 1953 novella by Poul Anderson which appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction.-Plot:...
in which the Matter of France
Matter of France
The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of...
is history, and the fairy folk are real and powerful. A partly familiar European history for which the author provides a point of divergence is Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s...
's "Lord Darcy
Lord Darcy (fiction)
Lord Darcy is a detective in an alternate history, created by Randall Garrett. The first stories were asserted to take place in the same year as they were published, but in a world very different from our own.-Title character:...
" series: a monk systemizing magic rather than science, so the use of foxglove
Digitalis
Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials that are commonly called foxgloves. This genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent reviews of phylogenetic research have placed it in the much enlarged family...
to treat heart disease is called superstition.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the 2004 first novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. An alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, it is based on the premise that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and...
takes place in an alternative version of England where a separate Kingdom ruled by the Raven King and founded on magic existed in Northumbria for over 300 years. In Patricia Wrede
Patricia Wrede
Patricia Collins Wrede is an American fantasy writer from Chicago, Illinois.The eldest of five children, she graduated from Carleton College in 1974 with a BA in Biology, married James Wrede in 1976 , and obtained an MBA from University of Minnesota in 1977.She finished her first book in 1978,...
's Regency fantasies, Great Britain has a Royal Society of Wizards, and in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest
A Midsummer Tempest
A Midsummer Tempest is an 1974 alternate history fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. In 1975, it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and Nebula Award for Best Novel and won the Mythopoeic Award.- Plot introduction :...
William Shakespeare is remembered as the Great Historian, with the novel itself taking place in the era of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
and Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, with an alternate outcome for the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and an earlier Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
The Tales of Alvin Maker
The Tales of Alvin Maker
The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of novels by Orson Scott Card that revolve around the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who discovers he has incredible powers for creating and shaping things around him...
series by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
(a parallel to the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
) takes place in an alternate America, beginning in the early 19th century. Prior to that time, a POD occurred: England, under the control of Oliver Cromwell, had banished "makers", or anyone else demonstrating "knacks" (an ability to perform seemingly supernatural feats) to the North American continent. Thus the early American colonists embraced as perfectly ordinary these gifts, and counted on them as a part of their daily lives. The political divisions of the continent is considerably altered, with two large English colonies bookending a smaller "American" nation, one aligned with England, and the other governed by exiled Cavaliers. Actual historical figures are seen in a much different light: Ben Franklin is revered as the continent's finest "maker", George Washington was executed at the hands of an English army, and "Tom" Jefferson is the first president of "Apallachee", the result of a compromise between the Continentals and the British.
On the other hand, when the "Old Ones" still manifest themselves in England in Keith Roberts
Keith Roberts
Keith John Kingston Roberts , was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" and "Escapism.Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym...
's Pavane
Pavane (novel)
Pavane by Keith Roberts is an alternate history science fiction fix-up novel first published by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd in 1968. Most of the original stories were published in Science Fantasy...
, which takes place in a technologically backward world after a Spanish assassination of Elizabeth I allowed the Spanish Armada to conquer England, the possibility that the fairies were real but retreated from modern advances makes the POD possible: the fairies really were present all along, in a secret history. Again, in the English Renaissance fantasy Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, the magic used in the book, by Dr. John Dee
John Dee (mathematician)
John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy....
and others, actually was practiced in the Renaissance; positing a secret history of effective magic makes this an alternate history with a POD, Sir Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
's surviving the Battle of Zutphen, and shortly thereafter saving the life of Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
.
Many works of fantasy posit a world in which known practitioners of magic were able to make it function, and where the consequences of such reality would not, in fact, disturb history to such an extent as to make it plainly alternate history. Many ambiguous alternate/secret histories are set in Renaissance or pre-Renaissance times, and may explicitly include a "retreat" from the world, which would explain the current absence of such phenomena.
When the magical version of our world's history is set in contemporary times, the distinction becomes clear between alternate history on the one hand and contemporary fantasy
Contemporary fantasy
Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day. It is perhaps most popular for its sub-genre, urban fantasy.-Definition and overview:...
, using in effect a form of secret history (as when Josepha Sherman
Josepha Sherman
Josepha Sherman is an American author. In 1990 she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel The Shining Falcon.-Buffyverse:*Visitors *Deep Water ...
's Son of Darkness has an elf living in New York City, in disguise) on the other. In works such as Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's Magic, Incorporated where a construction company can use magic to rig up stands at a sporting event and Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos and its sequel Operation Luna
Operation Luna
Operation Luna is a science fantasy novel by American writer Poul Anderson, published in 2000; it is the sequel to the 1971 fixup novel Operation Chaos by the same author....
, where djinns are serious weapons of war—with atomic bombs—the use of magic throughout the United States and other modern countries makes it clear that this is not secret history—although references in Operation Chaos to degaussing
Degaussing
Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating an unwanted magnetic field. It is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, an early researcher in the field of magnetism...
the effects of cold iron make it possible that it is the result of a POD. The sequel clarifies this as the result of a collaboration of Einstein and Planck in 1901, resulting in the theory of "rheatics". Henry Moseley
Henry Moseley
Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley was an English physicist. Moseley's outstanding contribution to the science of physics was the justification from physical laws of the previous empirical and chemical concept of the atomic number. This stemmed from his development of Moseley's law in X-ray spectra...
applies this theory to "degauss the effects of cold iron and release the goetic forces." This results in the suppression of ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets. In physics, several different types of magnetism are distinguished...
and the reemergence of magic and magical creatures.
Alternate history shades off into other fantasy subgenres when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source; Barry Hughart
Barry Hughart
Barry Hughart in Peoria, Illinois, is an American author of fantasy novels.- Background :Hughart was born in Peoria, Illinois on March 13, 1934. His father, John Harding Page, served as a naval officer. His mother, Veronica Hughart, was an architect.Hughart was educated at Phillips Academy...
's Bridge of Birds
Bridge of Birds
Bridge of Birds is a fantasy novel by Barry Hughart, first published in 1984. It is the first of three novels in the The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series...
and its sequels take place in a fantasy world
Fantasy world
A fantasy world is a fictional universe used in fantasy novels and games. Typical worlds involve magic or magical abilities and often, but not always, either a medieval or futuristic theme...
, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as the Empress Wu. Richard Garfinkle
Richard Garfinkle
Richard Garfinkle is an American writer of science fiction.He is best known as the author of Celestial Matters, a novel published by Tor Books, which won the Compton Crook Award in 1997....
's Celestial Matters
Celestial Matters
Celestial Matters is a science fantasy novel, set in an alternate universe with different laws of physics, written by Richard Garfinkle and published by Tor Books in 1996...
incorporates ancient Chinese physics and Greek Aristotelian physics
Aristotelian physics
Aristotelian Physics the natural sciences, are described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle . In the Physics, Aristotle established general principles of change that govern all natural bodies; both living and inanimate, celestial and terrestrial—including all motion, change in respect...
, using them as if factual.
A fantasy version of the paratime police was developed by children's writer Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones was a British writer, principally of fantasy novels for children and adults, as well as a small amount of non-fiction...
in her Chrestomanci
Chrestomanci
The Chrestomanci series is a children's fantasy series by Diana Wynne Jones. The word "Chrestomanci" may be derived from the Greek khrestos, meaning "useful," and -mancy, "divination."...
quartet (1977–1988), with wizards taking the place of high tech secret agents. Among the novels in this series, Witch Week
Witch Week
Witch Week is part of the Chrestomanci series of fantasy novels by Diana Wynne Jones. It was named a School Library Journal Book of the Year...
stands out for its vivid depiction of a history alternate to that of Chrestomanci's own world rather than our own (and yet with a specific POD that turned it away from the "normal" history of most worlds visited by the wizard).
Terry Pratchett's works include several references to alternate histories of Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
. Men At Arms
Men at Arms
Men at Arms is the 15th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett first published in 1993. It is the second novel about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch on the Discworld. Lance-constable Angua von Überwald, later in the series promoted to the rank of Sergeant, is introduced in this book...
observes that in millions of universes, Edward d'Eath became an obsessive recluse rather than the instigator of the plot that he is in the novel. In Jingo
Jingo (novel)
Jingo is the 21st novel by Terry Pratchett, one of his Discworld series. It was published in 1997. The rising of a previously submerged island and the subconstituent sovereignty dispute were inspired by the real-life island of Ferdinandea.-Plot:...
, Vimes accidentally picks up a pocket organizer that should have gone down another leg of the Trousers of Time, and so can hear the organizer reporting on the deaths that would have occurred had his decision gone otherwise. Indeed, Discworld contains an equivalent of the Time Patrol in its History Monks
History Monks
The Order of Wen the Eternally Surprised, better known as the History Monks, and also sometimes referred to as THE Fighting Order of Wen, the Men In Saffron and No Such Monastery , is a highly secretive religious organisation in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, based in the Monastery of...
. Night Watch revolves around a repair of history after a time traveler's murder of an important figure in Vimes's past. Thief of Time
Thief of Time
Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett, a 2002 Locus Award nominee.-Plot summary:The Auditors are upset because the human race are living their lives in - what the Auditors consider to be - an unpredictable way...
presents them functioning as a full-scale Time Patrol, ensuring that history occurs at all.
Radio
In 1953, the NBC radio network aired a show called Stroke of FateStroke of Fate
Stroke of Fate was an American radio drama in 1953.This NBC alternate history series aired 13 episodes from October 4th to December 27th featuring actors like Ed Begley, Alexander Scourby, Hal Studer and Santos Ortega. The episodes were written by Mort Lewis and George Faulkner, directed by Fred...
that posited different point of divergence creating an alternate time-line for each episode and dramatized the results along with commentary from various historians. Episodes included changes in the American Civil War, Alexander the Great surviving his illness, an alternate fate for James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
at Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, no Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
assassination, a different outcome of Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
's duel amongst other stories. All episodes have been preserved.
The idea of an alternate history was used for satiric and comedic effect in the BBC Radio comedy Married
Married (radio series)
Married is a BBC radio comedy with science fiction themes, first aired on BBC Radio 4. The main character is Robin Lightfoot, a confirmed bachelor with a successful architectural practice, who wakes up one day in a parallel universe in which he is married with two children...
. The protagonist, a confirmed bachelor, awakes one morning in a world where he has a wife and two children, and people familiar to him are radically changed. One historical divergence in this world, exploited mostly for comedy, was the decision of King Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
not to abdicate in 1936. His heirs were a King Richard and a King John, the latter of whom was openly homosexual.
Films
Several films have been made that exploit the concepts of alternate history, most notably Kevin BrownlowKevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
's It Happened Here
It Happened Here
It Happened Here is a 1966 British film, directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo. It is set in an alternate history in which Nazi Germany successfully invades and occupies the United Kingdom during World War II.-Setting:...
(1966), depicting a Nazi-occupied Britain. Other alternate history films include the HBO TV movie Fatherland (1994), set in the 1960s in a world where Germany won World War II, based on Robert Harris
Robert Harris (novelist)
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
's novel of the same name. Although foretelling a world where Germany is poised to be defeated in World War II, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Inglourious Basterds offers a satirical revenge fantasy where a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler succeeds.
Alternate histories in film are sometimes presented as mockumentaries to provide verisimilitude
Verisimilitude (literature)
Verisimilitude, with the meaning "of being true or real" is a likeness or resemblance of the truth, reality or a fact's probability. It comes from Latin verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar.-Original roots:...
to fictional events, including C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott. It is a fictional "tongue-in-cheek" account of an alternate history, in which the Confederates won the American Civil War, establishing the new Confederate States of America...
(2004), a satirical look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War.
Other examples of cinematic alternate history are: 2009 Lost Memories
2009 Lost Memories
2009 Lost Memories is a 2002 South Korean science fiction action thriller film directed by Lee Si-myung. It was distributed by CJ Entertainment and was released on February 1, 2002.-Plot:...
(2002), a Korean film supposing that Hirobumi Ito was not assassinated by An Jung-geun
An Jung-geun
An Jung-geun or Ahn Jung-geun was a Korean independence activist, nationalist, and pan-Asianist....
in Harbin, China, in 1909; and Timequest
Timequest (film)
Timequest is a 2002 science-fiction film directed by Robert Dyke. It stars the ensemble cast of Victor Slezak as John F. Kennedy, Caprice Benedetti as Jacqueline Kennedy, Vince Grant, and popular b-movie actor Bruce Campbell...
(2002), in which a time traveler prevents the assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, resulting in an altered subsequent history.
A few movies about alternative universes focus on individuals rather than historical events, for example, Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
, and more recently the Back to the Future series of films
Back to the Future trilogy
The Back to the Future trilogy is a comedic science fiction adventure film series written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, directed by Zemeckis, produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The main plot follows the adventures of a high school student Marty McFly and...
, Blind Chance, Sliding Doors
Sliding Doors
Sliding Doors is a 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, and featured John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Virginia McKenna. The music was composed by David Hirschfelder...
, Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run is a 1998 German crime thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life...
, Me Myself I
Me Myself I (film)
Me Myself I is a 2000 Australian comedy film.-Plot:Pamela Drury is single and works as a serious journalist. She spends her birthday alone and becomes lonely and reflects upon her life and the choices she made. In a box of photos of old boyfriends, she reflects upon why she broke up with one in...
, The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American sci-fi psychological thriller film that is written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber and starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart...
, Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (film)
Groundhog Day is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin....
, Frequency
Frequency (film)
Frequency is a 2000 science-fiction film that contains elements of the time travel, thriller and alternate history film genres. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit and written by Toby Emmerich. The film stars Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel as father and son, Frank and John Sullivan respectively. It...
and Inglourious Basterds.
Television
Several TV series also exploit the concept of alternate history. The science fiction television show SlidersSliders
Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
presented alternate histories under the science-inspired guise of quantum-navigating the multiverse
Multiverse (science)
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise everything that exists and can exist: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them...
. The vast majority of alternate Americas in most episodes are nasty dystopias, although sometimes this is not evident at first.
In Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, the characters time travel to 1977 past and attempt to create an alternate history. However, while the only intended ramifications were for Flight 815 to land in Los Angeles, instead, it is revealed that their actions were the cause of the crash, ultimately.
Other non-alternate history television shows have explored the concept. Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
has used the theme several times. Examples include: TOS
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
—"The City on the Edge of Forever" (alternate World War II outcome); Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
—"Yesteryear"; NG
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
—"Yesterday's Enterprise
Yesterday's Enterprise
"Yesterday's Enterprise" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of the science fiction television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode first aired in syndication the week of February 19, 1990...
", and Enterprise's "Storm Front" Also, the universe of "Mirror, Mirror", while in the original episode was just implied to be a parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
, was in later episodes (of DS9 and Enterprise) shown to have an alternate history.
The British TV series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
had a few episodes that involved an alternate Earth where Pete Tyler
Pete Tyler
Pete Tyler, full name Peter Alan Tyler, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Shaun Dingwall...
, father of Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
, was alive, successful, and rich, unlike the Pete Tyler on the original Earth, who died when Rose was a baby and had been unsuccessful in business. The Tenth Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
, Rose, and Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme...
visited the alternate Earth by accident in "Rise of the Cybermen
Rise of the Cybermen
"Rise of the Cybermen" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode features the return of Cybermen, where they are created on Earth itself. It is the first part of a two-part story, the concluding part being "The Age of Steel"...
" and "The Age of Steel
The Age of Steel
"The Age of Steel" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 20 May 2006 and is the second part of a two-part story that was the first to feature the Cybermen since Silver Nemesis in 1988. The first part, "Rise of the Cybermen", was...
". The second season finale "Army of Ghosts
Army of Ghosts
"Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who which was first broadcast on 1 July 2006...
" and "Doomsday
Doomsday (Doctor Who)
"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006...
" also involved travel to the same alternate Earth, and the series four episode "Turn Left
Turn Left (Doctor Who)
"Turn Left" is the eleventh episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by showrunner Russell T Davies and broadcast on BBC One on 21 June 2008....
" showed an alternate history where the Tenth Doctor has been killed during the Racnoss attack
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
. During the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
's tenure he visited an alternative Earth with a fascist-style British Government that has executed the Royal Family (and fascist counterparts of his friends/companions Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
and Sergeant Benton
Sergeant Benton
Sergeant Benton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by John Levene. He was the senior NCO of the British contingent of UNIT , an international organisation that defends the Earth...
) in Inferno
Inferno (Doctor Who)
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
, from which he is able to learn of a danger that also threatens his Earth.
In the seventies SF children's series The Tomorrow People
The Tomorrow People
The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction television series, devised by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran between 1973 and 1979. The series was re-imagined in 1992, Roger Price acting as executive producer...
, "A Stitch in Time" (1974) depicted an attempted historical change by time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
lers from an alternate-universe Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
that developed steam engines in the first century, never fell as a result, had a 1,500-year technological head-start over our own world and by its "20th century," controlled a galactic empire.
In the Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...
episode "The Parallel
The Parallel
"The Parallel" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:An astronaut, Major Robert Gaines, is orbiting the Earth in his space capsule. However, at one point the systems malfunction and he blacks out, waking up on Earth...
," an astronaut is transported to an alternate Earth where history plays out differently, but no-one believes him when he discovers this.
On August 24, 2011, Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
aired a special titled Alternate History, a program speculating what would occur if Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
won World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and conquered the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
On October 13, 2011, the Community
Community (TV series)
Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
episode "Remedial Chaos Theory
Remedial Chaos Theory
"Remedial Chaos Theory" is the fourth episode of the third season of the U.S. television series Community. It originally aired on October 13, 2011 on NBC. The episode features a housewarming party for Troy and Abed panning out in seven alternate timelines...
" includes seven alternate timelines in the lives of the show's seven main characters, dependent on which of the seven went to get the pizza delivered to the apartment.
Various anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
productions have also used the genre:
- ZipangZipang (anime)is a twenty-six episode Japanese anime television series directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi and produced by Studio Deen. It aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System in Japan from late 2004 to early 2005, and was licensed for release in North America by Geneon Entertainment with DVD release starting in...
(based on a mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
of the same name), involves a modern AegisAegis combat systemThe Aegis Combat System is an integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and now produced by Lockheed Martin...
class destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense ForceJapan Maritime Self-Defense ForceThe , or JMSDF, is the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. It was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II....
being thrown back in time to the Battle of MidwayBattle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
in 1942. The presence of the ship and its crew, their advanced technology and knowledge of the future, change the course of World War II and create an alternate timeline.
- Konpeki no KantaiKonpeki no Kantaiis a Japanese alternate-history original video animation series produced by J.C.Staff. The series focuses on a technologically advanced Imperial Japanese Navy and a radically different World War II that was brought about by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's revival in the past due to unexplained...
(lit. Deep Blue Fleet) depicts a hyper-advanced Japanese navy defeating the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Subsequently, Japan, Britain and the United States join forces to defeat Nazi GermanyNazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
Role-playing games
The dramatic possibilities of alternate history provide a diverse genre for exploration in role-playing gameRole-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s. Many games use an alternate historical background for their campaigns. In particular, the fourth edition of GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
uses a setting containing multiple different alternate histories as its default campaign setting, with the supplement GURPS Infinite Worlds
GURPS Infinite Worlds
GURPS Infinite Worlds is a supplement for the Fourth Edition of the GURPS role-playing game, published by Steve Jackson Games in 2005 and written by Kenneth Hite, Steve Jackson, and John M. Ford...
detailing a large number of alternate worlds included in the setting, many of them carryovers from the third-edition GURPS supplements GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths II.
Video games
For the same reasons that this genre is explored by role-playing games, alternate history is also an intriguing backdrop for the storylines of many video games. A famous example of an alternate history game is Command & Conquer: Red AlertCommand & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy computer game of the Command & Conquer franchise, produced by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive in...
. Released in 1996, the game presents a point of divergence in 1946 where Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
goes back in time to prevent World War II from ever taking place by erasing Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
from time after he is released from Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west of Munich and south of Augsburg....
in 1924. He is successful in his mission, but in the process allows Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to become powerful enough—as a direct result of not having a strong rival dictator like Hitler to keep his power in check—to launch a massive campaign to conquer Europe, sparking an alternate (and ultimately costlier) version of the Second World War and, eventually, World War III not once but twice: one where the USSR invades the continental US in the 1970s, and a second where a small group of Soviet leaders, attempting to preempt their defeat, go back in time and eliminate Einstein but end up in a conflict with both the West and a third Japanese side.
In the Civilization Series
Civilization (series)
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...
, the player guides a civilization from prehistory to the present day, creating radically altered versions of history on a long time-scale. Several scenarios recreate a particular period which becomes the "point of divergence" in an alternate history shaped by the player's actions. Popular examples in Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Civilization IV
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
include Desert War, set in the Mediterranean theater of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and featuring scripted events tied to possible outcomes of battles; Broken Star, set in a hypothetical Russian civil war in 2010; and Rhye's and Fall of Civilization
Rhye's and Fall of Civilization
Rhye's and Fall of Civilization is a "fan scenario" for the 2005 computer game Sid Meier's Civilization IV. It is an 'Earth simulator' that uses a variety of scripted events to mirror history much more closely than a typical game of Civilization...
, an 'Earth simulator' designed to mirror a history as closely as possible but incorporating unpredictable elements to provide realistic alternate settings.
Crimson Skies
Crimson Skies
Crimson Skies is a media franchise and fictional universe created by Jordan Weisman and Dave McCoy. The series' intellectual property is currently owned by Microsoft Game Studios , although Weisman's new company, Smith & Tinker Inc., has announced that it has licensed the electronic entertainment...
is one example of an alternate history spawning multiple interpretations in multiple genres. The stories and games in Crimson Skies take place in an alternate 1930s United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where the nation crumbled into many hostile states following the effects of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. With the road and railway system destroyed, commerce took to the skies. Great cargo zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
s escorted by fighter squadrons are the targets of many ruthless air pirates and enemy countries. This world has featured in a board game, a PC game, an Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
game, a collectible miniature game and various promotional novels, comics and short stories.
The game Freedom Fighters
Freedom Fighters (video game)
Freedom Fighters, originally titled Freedom: The Battle For Liberty Island, is a 2003 third-person shooter video game available for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and Microsoft Windows that is set in an alternate history...
portrays a situation similar to that of the movie Red Dawn
Red Dawn
Red Dawn is a 1984 American war film directed by John Milius and co-written by Milius and Kevin Reynolds. It stars Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey....
and Red Alert 2, though less comically than the latter. The point of divergence is during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
develops an atomic bomb first and uses it on Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. With the balance of power and influence tipped in Russia's favor, history diverges; brief summaries at the beginning of the game inform the player of the Communist bloc's complete takeover of Europe by 1953, a different ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, and the spread of Soviet influence into South America and Mexico. The plot of the game revolves around a Soviet invasion of the United States and the resistance fighting in New York City.
Similarly, the 2007 video game World in Conflict
World in Conflict
World in Conflict, or WiC, is a real-time tactical video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows. The game was released in September 2007...
is set in 1989, with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on the verge of collapse. The point of divergence is several months before the opening of the game, when Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
forces staged a desperate invasion of Western Europe. As the game begins, a Soviet invasion force lands in Seattle, taking advantage of the fact that most of the US military is in Europe. The game is divided into three parts: the first focuses on the fighting retreat from Seattle towards Fort Teller in the Cascade Mountains; the second is a flashback to the recent fighting in Europe, which culminated in a Soviet attack on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
; the third chronicles the fight to retake Seattle before a Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
fleet arrives, which could force the US President to destroy the invaders with a nuclear strike.
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, released in February 2008, is an alternate history first person shooter where Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
died in 1931 from being hit by a taxi cab. Because of this, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
lacks the charismatic leader needed to keep the country together and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
successfully conquers Great Britain via Operation Sealion
Operation Sealion
Operation Sea Lion was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air and naval supremacy over the English Channel...
. Germany later conquers the rest of Europe and North Africa while mass-producing their wunderwaffe
Wunderwaffe
Wunderwaffe is German for "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by the German propaganda ministry to a few revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained more or less feasible prototypes, or reached the combat theatre too late, and in too insignificant...
. The Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
launch a surprise invasion of an isolationist United States in 1953, which forces the country to surrender and submit to a puppet government. The game's main character is a member of a resistance force against the Germans.
Another alternate history game involving Nazis is War Front: Turning Point
War Front: Turning Point
War Front: Turning Point is an alternate reality real-time strategy computer game set in World War II. It was developed by Digital Reality, and published by CDV and released in the United States on 19 February and Europe on 23 March 2007 for the PC....
in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of World War II and thus, a much more effective leadership rose to power. Under the command of a new Führer (who is referred to as "Chancellor", and his real name is never revealed), Operation Sealion
Operation Sealion
Operation Sea Lion was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air and naval supremacy over the English Channel...
succeeds and the Nazis successfully conquer Britain, sparking a cold war between the Allied Powers and Germany.
Another example of alternate history is the Resistance series
Resistance (series)
Resistance is a science fiction horror series of first-person shooter and third-person shooter video games developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita video game consoles.The series takes place in an...
of first-person shooter games. The point of divergence is in the years following World War I, where an isolationist Russian Empire - and later, Western Europe - is conquered by an alien race called the Chimera. The aliens later invade the United States.
The Fallout Series of computer role-playing games is set in a divergent America, where history after World War II diverges from the real world to follow a retro-futuristic timeline. For example, fusion power
Fusion power
Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus . In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested...
was invented quite soon after the end of the war, but the transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
was either delayed or never was developed. The result was a future that has a 1950s 'World of Tomorrow' feel to it, with extremely high technology such as artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
implemented with thermionic valves and other technologies now considered obsolete.
Iron Storm is a first person shooter set in 1964, where the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
still continues and international corporations sell stocks as if "betting" on an outcome. Since profits are so great, they continually press for stalemate to keep the conflict in an ongoing cycle of minor advances and losses.
Comic books
Alternate history has also appeared in comic books. An early example is Captain ConfederacyCaptain Confederacy
Captain Confederacy is an alternate history comic book by Will Shetterly and Vince Stone that was published between 1986 and 1992. It tells the story of a superhero created for propaganda purposes in a world in which the Confederate States of America won their independence.-Publication history:John M...
, which is set in a world where the Confederate States of America won its independence and has created a Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
-type superhero for propaganda purposes.
Influential comic writers have also used an alternate history as the background to their story. Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's 1986 comic series Watchmen
Watchmen
Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colourist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form...
is set in an alternate United States that not only has costumed adventurers as commonplace fixtures within American society, but also contains other alternate history elements including an American "victory" in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
serving five terms as president. Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
's 2001 comic mini-series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
Ministry of Space
Ministry of Space
Ministry of Space is a three-part alternate history mini-series written by Warren Ellis, published by Image Comics, starting in 2001. The book's art is by Chris Weston, and depicts retro technology in a believably 'British' style....
features a British space program that had its foundation in the United Kingdom's recovery of scientists and technology at the German rocket installations in Peenemünde
Peenemünde
The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the Army Weapons Office ....
ahead of the US Army and the Soviets.
There have also been alternative history webcomics like Roswell, Texas, which diverges when Davy Crockett
Davy Crockett
David "Davy" Crockett was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S...
survived the Alamo
Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a battle fought during the Texas Revolution.Alamo may also refer to:-Places:*Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas*Alamo, California*Alamo, Georgia*Alamo Township, Michigan*Alamo, Nevada*Alamo, New Mexico...
, leading to the expansion of Texas.
Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
have their own titles where they can tell alternative stories based on their own characters (What If...?
What If (comics)
What If, sometimes rendered as What If...?, is the title of several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, exploring "the road not traveled" by its various characters...
and Elseworlds
Elseworlds
Elseworlds is the publication imprint for a group of comic books produced by DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others...
, respectively). Most set the stories in different times or base them on different genres with some based on a divergence in their fictional history, such as the Age of Apocalypse
Age of Apocalypse
"Age of Apocalypse" is a 1995 - 1996 comic book crossover storyline published in the X-Men franchise of books by Marvel Comics. The Age of Apocalypse briefly replaced the universe of Earth-616, although it was later retconned as having occurred in the alternate universe of Earth-295, it had...
, where Professor X being killed accidentally in the past led to Apocalypse taking over America.
The time travelling Marvel Comics villain Kang the Conquerer has created alternate realities and different versions of himself due to his time travelling. However after stumbling into Limbo he succeeds in eliminating all the other versions of himself. Later his Future counterpart Immortus
Immortus
Immortus is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. He is the future self of Kang the Conqueror, and first appeared in Avengers #10, and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby....
becomes an alternate version of himself.
However, some are genuine alternate histories, with Batman: Holy Terror
Batman: Holy Terror
Batman: Holy Terror is an Elseworlds one-shot comic published by DC Comics in 1991. The story is written by Alan Brennert and illustrated by Norm Breyfogle...
based on the premise that Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
lived for another decade. Some of the newer DC Multiverse alternate Earths could be legitimately described as alternate histories. On Earth-9, the emergence of metahumans led to a limited nuclear exchange ("the Cuban War") in 1962, leading to the destruction of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, US intervention during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1967 and the survival of the USSR into the nineties (see Tangent Comics
Tangent Comics
Tangent Comics was a DC Comics imprint created in 1997–1998, developed from ideas created by Dan Jurgens. The line, formed from various one-shots, focused on creating all-new characters using established DC names, such as the Joker, Superman, and the Flash...
.). On Earth-10, Nazi Germany won the Second World War. On Earth-17, the United States and USSR fought a thermonuclear World War III in 1986, with some human survivors. On Earth-30, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
won the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
due to the technological boost provided by Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, whose vehicle landed in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, instead of Kansas (see Superman: Red Son
Superman: Red Son
Superman: Red Son is a three-issue prestige format comic book mini-series published by DC Comics that was released under their Elseworlds imprint in April 2003...
).
In 2009, Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
created Grandville
Grandville (comics)
Grandville is a British graphic novel series written and drawn by Bryan Talbot. It is a mixture of the steampunk, alternative history and thriller genres. It is set in a world in which France won the Napoleonic Wars and invaded Britain, and in which the world is populated mostly by anthropomorphic...
, a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
set in a world mostly populated by anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
animals, in which France won the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, invaded Britain and guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
d the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
. Grandville also features elements of steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
.
In 1978, "The Sentinels", one of the first serials in UK girls' comic Misty
Misty (comics)
Misty was a British comic for girls published by Fleetway in London from 4th Feb 1978 until 1984, after merging with Tammy on 19 January 1980. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, with the stories themselves normally being three or four pages long...
, featured an alternate world where Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
conquered Britain in 1940. The alternate world was connected with the mainstream world via two apartment blocks called "The Sentinels". People kept stumbling in from both sides, causing terror over unexplained disappearances and worse, mix-ups over parallel world doubles. This culminated in the Gestapo mistakenly arresting a man from the mainstream world and people from both worlds uniting for the rescue mission.
Online
Fans of alternate history have made use of the internet to showcase their own works and provide useful tools for those fans searching for anything alternate history. Uchronia: The Alternate History ListUchronia: The Alternate History List
Uchronia: The Alternate History List is an online general-interest book database containing a bibliography of over 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material. It is owned and operated by Robert B. Schmunk...
is an online database that contains 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material, in several different languages. Twice Uchronia was selected as the Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
's "Sci Fi Site of the Week."
Collaborative attempts by several amateur writers have also led to notable accomplishments. The contributors at Ill Bethisad
Ill Bethisad
Ill Bethisad is an ongoing, collaborative alternate history project which currently has over 70 participants, originally created by Andrew Smith from New Zealand. It was initiated in 1997 as the Brithenig Project. It can be counted to the subgenre of steampunk, and is known as one of the oldest and...
have made two constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
s: Brithenig
Brithenig
Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language . It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it....
and Wenedyk
Wenedyk
Wenedyk is a naturalistic constructed language, created by the Dutch translator Jan van Steenbergen . It is used in the fictional Republic of the Two Crowns , in the alternate timeline of Ill Bethisad...
.
See also
- Alien space batsAlien space batsAlien space bats is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to create a point of divergence that would otherwise be implausible.-Definition:...
- American Civil War alternate historiesAmerican Civil War alternate historiesAmerican Civil War alternate histories are texts wherein events during the American Civil War occurred differently from those in history. The most common variant of these detail the victory and survival of the Confederate States of America...
- Axis victory in World War IIAxis victory in World War IIAn Axis victory in World War II is a common concept in alternate history. World War II alternate histories are one of the two most popular points of divergence in the English language...
- Counterfactual history
- Future historyFuture historyA future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
- Historical revisionismHistorical revisionismIn historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
- Invasion literatureInvasion literatureInvasion literature was a historical literary genre most notable between 1871 and the First World War . The genre first became recognizable starting in Britain in 1871 with The Battle of Dorking, a fictional account of an invasion of England by Germany...
- Jonbar HingeJonbar hingeA Jonbar Hinge is a science fiction concept derived from the Jack Williamson novel The Legion of Time...
- List of alternate history fiction
- Retro-futurismRetro-futurismRetro-futurism is a trend in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced prior to about 1960...
- Ruritanian romanceRuritanian RomanceA Ruritanian Romance is a story set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe, such as the Ruritania that gave the genre its name...
- Secret historySecret historyA secret history is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.-Secret histories of the real world:...
- Sidewise Award for Alternate HistorySidewise Award for Alternate HistoryThe Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with...
- UchroniaUchroniaUchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds. A concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined , sometimes reminiscent of a constructed world...
- Uchronia: The Alternate History ListUchronia: The Alternate History ListUchronia: The Alternate History List is an online general-interest book database containing a bibliography of over 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material. It is owned and operated by Robert B. Schmunk...
Further reading
- Chapman, Edgar L., and Carl B. Yoke (eds.). Classic and Iconoclastic Alternate History Science Fiction. Mellen, 2003
- Collins, William Joseph. Paths Not Taken: The Development, Structure, and Aesthetics of the Alternative History. University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
at Davis 1990 - Darius, Julian. 58 Varieties: Watchmen and Revisionism. In Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization, 2010. Focuses on Watchmen as alternate history.
- Robert Cowley (ed.), What If? Military historians imagine what might have beenWhat If? (essays)What If?, subtitled The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, is a collection of twenty essays and thirteen sidebars dealing with counterfactual history. It was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1999, ISBN 0-399-14576-1, and this book as well as its two sequels, What...
. Pan Books, 1999. - Gevers, Nicholas. Mirrors of the Past: Versions of History in Science Fiction and Fantasy. University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownThe University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, 1997 - Hellekson, Karen. The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical Time. Kent State UniversityKent State UniversityKent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
Press, 2001 - Keen, Antony G. "Alternate Histories of the Roman Empire in Stephen Baxter, Robert Silverberg and Sophia McDougall." Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 102, Spring 2008.
- McKnight, Edgar Vernon, Jr. Alternative History: The Development of a Literary Genre. University of North CarolinaUniversity of North CarolinaChartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
at Chapel Hill 1994 - Nedelkovh, Aleksandar B. British and American Science Fiction Novel 1950–1980 with the Theme of Alternative History (an Axiological Approach). 1994 , 1999
- Rosenfeld, Gavriel DavidGavriel David RosenfeldGavriel D. Rosenfeld is Associate Professor of History at Fairfield University. His area of specialization is the history and memory of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.-Education:...
. The World Hitler Never Made. Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism. 2005 - Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. "Why Do We Ask 'What If?' Reflections on the Function of Alternate History." History and Theory 41, Theme Issue 41 (December 2002), 90–103
Interactive sites
- Alternatehistory.com An active alternate history discussion board on the Internet.
- Althistory Wikia Alternate History Wikia, maintained by WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
- Groups-Beta.google.com, Soc.history.what-if The usenetUsenetUsenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroupNewsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
on alternate history with over a decade of archives.
Non-interactive sites
- Alternate History Weekly Update: a blog featuring commentary on alternate history news.
- Changing The Times, is an Alternate History Electronic Magazine written and maintained by alternate historians. It contains a discussion board.
- "For Want of a Genre", article by Christopher M. Cevasco.
- Histalt.com is author Richard J. (Rick) Sutcliffe's collection of Alternate History links.
- John Reilly's Alternative History
- Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction, frequently publishes alternate history stories.
- Point of Divergence: Information about the APAAmateur press associationAn amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
Point of Divergence, which has been publishing since 1996. - Shattered World: A Worse World War, a site based on an alternate historical scenario containing an active forum.
- The Sidewise Award for Alternate History lists all the winners and nominees for the award since its inception and provides information for recommending works for consideration.
- This Day in Alternate History, dedicated to showing significant events in years past on this day that shaped history... just, not our history.
- Today in Alternate History, a daily-updated blog, featuring "Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today" in several recurring timelines.
- Uchronia has an introduction to the topic, and lists over 2000 works of alternate history.