Oh Yeah, Alternative History!
July 20, 2017 11:38 AM Subscribe
Inspired by this post on the blue - got any good suggestions for alternative history?
I've dabbled in and out of the genre in the past; but I've got a quirky preference that may be hard to articulate, so bear with me.
I'm coming from a place of armchair interest in history in general. So I tend to be more interested in things that deal a little more heavily with the "what if" and "how-it-happened" and "what would happen as a result" more so than I am interested in the plot itself. So I had a bit of a hard time getting into Years of Rice and Salt, for instance, because it felt like it was focusing more so on the inner life of one guy than it was on "so here's how things went down after everyone died in the Plague". From what I've read of Harry Turtledove, it feels like I'd have the same problem with him. Conversely, I really liked Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" and "It Can't Happen Here", because those got kind of deep into the "how different influences triggered each other" elements.
I should add that if something is really, really well-written I can make exceptions; there's a short story called "The Winterberry" I really liked, that was operating under the premise that JFK survived his assassination attempt but was severely brain-damaged, to the point that he had the mental age of a five-year-old; so the rest of the family faked his death and kept him at home as a recluse, caring for him thenceforward. The story was written in this alternate JFK's voice, in the form of occasional journal entries; there were entries about his brother Bobby visiting and then suddenly stopping, and a pretty lady in pink and a pillbox hat who visited every Christmas. That is definitely more about "the inner life of one guy" more so than "how different things influenced each other", but it's beautifully written and I fell for it as a result.
And it doesn't even have to be political history. Another book I kinda like was about what would have happened if The Beatles never got their record deal.
Hit me up. Thanks!
I've dabbled in and out of the genre in the past; but I've got a quirky preference that may be hard to articulate, so bear with me.
I'm coming from a place of armchair interest in history in general. So I tend to be more interested in things that deal a little more heavily with the "what if" and "how-it-happened" and "what would happen as a result" more so than I am interested in the plot itself. So I had a bit of a hard time getting into Years of Rice and Salt, for instance, because it felt like it was focusing more so on the inner life of one guy than it was on "so here's how things went down after everyone died in the Plague". From what I've read of Harry Turtledove, it feels like I'd have the same problem with him. Conversely, I really liked Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" and "It Can't Happen Here", because those got kind of deep into the "how different influences triggered each other" elements.
I should add that if something is really, really well-written I can make exceptions; there's a short story called "The Winterberry" I really liked, that was operating under the premise that JFK survived his assassination attempt but was severely brain-damaged, to the point that he had the mental age of a five-year-old; so the rest of the family faked his death and kept him at home as a recluse, caring for him thenceforward. The story was written in this alternate JFK's voice, in the form of occasional journal entries; there were entries about his brother Bobby visiting and then suddenly stopping, and a pretty lady in pink and a pillbox hat who visited every Christmas. That is definitely more about "the inner life of one guy" more so than "how different things influenced each other", but it's beautifully written and I fell for it as a result.
And it doesn't even have to be political history. Another book I kinda like was about what would have happened if The Beatles never got their record deal.
Hit me up. Thanks!
Best answer: Robert Harris, "Fatherland" (which got made into a very bad HBO film a long time ago) is my go to for what-if-the-Nazis-had-won........it's a well-written police procedural/thriller, set in Berlin in 1960, just before a summit meeting with President Joseph Kennedy is announced, that takes a disturbing turn.
posted by thelonius at 12:05 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 12:05 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
* 11.22.63
* The Man in the High Castle
* What if Hillary Lost? (Oh wait, that one's true.)
posted by cnc at 12:11 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
* The Man in the High Castle
* What if Hillary Lost? (Oh wait, that one's true.)
posted by cnc at 12:11 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The Underground Railroad, which has won several awards including the National Book Award in the US, tells the story of a woman escaping enslavement on a literal, not metaphorical, underground railroad.
(Please note that this is unrelated to the proposed TV series Confederate that's been getting a lot of negative buzz lately. Underground Railroad was written by an African American writer.)
posted by bluedaisy at 12:39 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
(Please note that this is unrelated to the proposed TV series Confederate that's been getting a lot of negative buzz lately. Underground Railroad was written by an African American writer.)
posted by bluedaisy at 12:39 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an alternative history where the state of Israel was never formed, and instead, a temporary-turned-permanent safe haven for WWII Jewish refugees is located in the Alaskan panhandle.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:47 PM on July 20, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:47 PM on July 20, 2017 [4 favorites]
I feel like reading Wikipedia summaries of Harry Turtledove (and similar) alternate histories really scratches this itch for me. More of the What If? without all the clunky characterization and groanworthy B-plots.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:47 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 12:47 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Oh, I did like 11.22.63, at that. Although I acknowledge it's not quite a good example of the genre (it's more time-travel than alternative history); but the flash-forward after preventing the assassination is good at getting at the kind of thing I like reading about, because it lays out the cause-and-effect that builds to "why preventing Kennedy's assassination lead to a modern-day dystopia".
Also I like Stephen King.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:49 PM on July 20, 2017
Also I like Stephen King.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:49 PM on July 20, 2017
The 1632 series by Eric Flint et al. starts when a chunk of contemporary West Virginia lands in Germany during the
30 Years War. The Americans become involved in the war, politics and technology and European history begins to diverge from ours. The writing quality varies and as I am making my way through the series I occasionally do some serious skimming but it's interesting enough that I expect to continue.
posted by Botanizer at 1:03 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
30 Years War. The Americans become involved in the war, politics and technology and European history begins to diverge from ours. The writing quality varies and as I am making my way through the series I occasionally do some serious skimming but it's interesting enough that I expect to continue.
posted by Botanizer at 1:03 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Matt Ruff's The Mirage is an interesting one:
11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.
The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .
posted by Ragged Richard at 1:42 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.
The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .
posted by Ragged Richard at 1:42 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
A co-worker was reading The Plot Agaisnt America by Philip Roth, which is another WWII "what if" story, but pivots when Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh, where Lindbergh's true-live America First party support is expanded to a surprise appearance on the last night of the 1940 Republican National Convention, where he is nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for President, and it goes from there.
My co-worker said it was uncomfortably current in some trends and themes, which made it all the more interesting to read. I haven't had the heart to pick it up yet.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:27 PM on July 20, 2017
My co-worker said it was uncomfortably current in some trends and themes, which made it all the more interesting to read. I haven't had the heart to pick it up yet.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:27 PM on July 20, 2017
Best answer: It sounds like you're interested mostly by the points of divergence and their consequences. From an outsider's POV, that's what I recall the discussions in the Usenet group soc.history.what-if focusing on back in the day. It looks like that kind of discussion is now more prominent on alternatehistory.com. Their wiki seems to point directly to several hundred threads that seem fleshed out enough to maybe address your primary concerns.
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:43 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:43 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: It's been a long time since I read it, but you should take a look at Kingsley Amis' The Alteration, in which--among other changes--Martin Luther was reconciled with the leadership of the Catholic church and became pope, so the Protestant Reformation never happened.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:11 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:11 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
Mary Gentle's Book of Ash is an alternative history of medieval Burgundy, especially the military history, and is definitely not for the squeamish.
posted by MovableBookLady at 3:31 PM on July 20, 2017
posted by MovableBookLady at 3:31 PM on July 20, 2017
+1 for the 1632 series. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's an interesting perspective on both the 30 years war and small-town USA. It has spawned a vast number of sequels and fan fiction, and the first book (1632) is available for free in various electronic formats. The fan fiction has gotten popular enough to produce a bi-monthly e-magazine. As Botanizer says, the writing quality can vary, but if you're interested in the reactions of the 16th century inhabitants, there are some more realistic portrayals later in the series.
posted by dttocs at 5:21 PM on July 20, 2017
posted by dttocs at 5:21 PM on July 20, 2017
The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock was the first alternate history novel that I'd read, way back before the genre was a thing. It features dry wit and quasi-Steampunk/Victoriana touches.
posted by ovvl at 10:03 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 10:03 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Underground Airlines is a good one (what could have happened had Lincoln been assassinated before the civil war began).
Life After Life is wonderful, but I think might veer too much toward the inner life of the characters for your preferences.
Maybe Libra. It's not quite alternate history, but it's not-quite-true history and fun to read.
posted by snaw at 7:22 AM on July 21, 2017
Life After Life is wonderful, but I think might veer too much toward the inner life of the characters for your preferences.
Maybe Libra. It's not quite alternate history, but it's not-quite-true history and fun to read.
posted by snaw at 7:22 AM on July 21, 2017
Matt Rossi has three books that are full of "what-if" essays if you want stuff that is really out there. Like "what if Doc Holiday was the Masonic attempt at creating the Fisher King?" or "what if Napoleon was a supercomputer?" or "what if the Tunganuska Blast was created by a failed time travel experiment?". He calls the genre "speculative non-fiction".
Things That Never Were
Bottled Demon
At Last, Atlantis
posted by charred husk at 2:04 PM on July 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Things That Never Were
Bottled Demon
At Last, Atlantis
posted by charred husk at 2:04 PM on July 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
One of the links upthread pointed me towards The Two Georges, which reminds me of Harry Harrison's earlier A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! Both of these are set in a modern-day British Empire which successfully quashed the 18th-century rebellion in the American colonies.
posted by Rash at 9:01 PM on July 21, 2017
posted by Rash at 9:01 PM on July 21, 2017
For Want of a Nail is about what would happen if the colonies lost the American Revolution and the defeated rebels fled to Mexico. It's particularly interesting because the whole novel is written in the form of a fictional history book, complete with bibliography and footnotes.
posted by FJT at 9:45 AM on July 24, 2017
posted by FJT at 9:45 AM on July 24, 2017
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They do a good job of showing how a society just kind of slips into that sort of mentality, how it seeps in. They all take place in England and shows increasing hatred toward Jews in England, small governmental changes and feeling of the people that lead to their own type of concentration camps, etc.
Reading it in today's American kinda freaked me out actually.
posted by magnetsphere at 11:46 AM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]