Alternative history (fiction)

Alternative history or alternate history is fiction that is set in a world in which history has diverged from history as it is generally known; more simply put, alternate history asks the question, "What If history had developed differently?" Most works that employ this rubric are set in factful historical contexts, yet feature several social, geopolitical or industrial circumstances that developed differently or at a different pace from our own, sometimes as a result of progress in technological or social paradigms that were accomplished via the understanding already present in the given zeitgeist. While to some extent all fiction can be described as alternative history, the genre proper comprises fiction in which a change happens that causes history to diverge from our own. For a variety of reasons, alternate history is generally classified as a subcategory of speculative fiction. Secret history, which gives an account of history at odds with our general understanding, presenting its own account as having been lost or forgotten, is not alternate history.

History of alternate history fiction

Antiquity

The earliest example of alternative history appears to be Book IX, sections 17-19, of Livy's History of Rome from Its Foundation. He contemplates the possibility of Alexander the Great expanding his father's empire westward instead of eastward and attacking Rome in the 4th century BC.

Related Topics:
Livy - Alexander the Great - 4th century BC

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19th century

The earliest alternative history published as a complete work, rather than an aside or digression in a longer work, is believed to be Louis Napoléon Geoffroy-Château's French nationalist tale, Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812-1823 (1836) – in English "Napoleon and the conquest of the world". In this book, Geoffroy-Château postulates that Napoleon turns away from Moscow before the disastrous winter of 1812. Without the severe losses he suffered historically, Napoleon is able to conquer the world. Geoffroy-Château's book must have been popular in France, for the subsequent years saw many similar novels published.

Related Topics:
Louis Napoléon Geoffroy-Château - 1836 - Napoleon - Moscow - 1812 - France

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In the English language, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "P.'s Correspondence", published in 1846 and which recounts the tale of an apparent madman and his purported encounters with various literary and political figures of the 1840s. At novel length, the first alternative history in English would seem to be Castello Holford's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812-1823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society which never existed. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a utopian society in North America.

Related Topics:
English language - Nathaniel Hawthorne - Short story - 1846 - Castello Holford - 1895 - Virginia - Gold - Utopian - North America

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Early 20th century

Academic works

Although a number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the next major work is perhaps the strongest anthology of alternative history ever assembled. In 1932, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays, many of which could be considered stories, in If It Had Happened Otherwise from some of the leading historians of the period. In this work, Oxford and Cambridge scholars turned their attention to such questions as "If the Moors in Spain Had Won" and "If Louis XVI Had Had an Atom of Firmness."

Related Topics:
1932 - Sir John Squire - Oxford - Cambridge - Louis XVI

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Four of the fourteen pieces examined the two most popular themes in alternate history prior to the Second World War: Napoleon's victory and the American Civil War. One of the entries in Squire's volume was Winston 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. (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 "alternative-alternative history".) Other authors appearing in Squire's book included Hilaire Belloc and André Maurois.

Related Topics:
Second World War - American Civil War - Winston Churchill - Confederacy - Hilaire Belloc - André Maurois

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Popular fiction

The next year, 1933, would see alternative history move into a new arena. The December issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner's "Ancestral Voices". This was quickly followed by Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time". While earlier alternative histories examined reasonably straight-forward 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 Robinson College Professor Minott as he wanders through these analogs, each of which features remnants of worlds which followed a different history.

Related Topics:
1933 - December - Nat Schachner - Murray Leinster - Robinson College

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This period also saw the publication of the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp, which was similar to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court but sent an American academic to the Italy of Belisarius. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternative history.

Related Topics:
Time travel - Lest Darkness Fall - L. Sprague de Camp - Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Italy - Belisarius

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Late 20th century

In 1962, Philip K. Dick published The Man in the High Castle, an alternate history in which Nazi Germany and imperial Japan won World War II. This book proved to be extremely influential and greatly popularized the genre of alternate history. It also 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.

Related Topics:
1962 - Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle - Nazi Germany - Imperial Japan - World War II

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The late 1980s and 1990s saw a boom in alternate history, fueled by the emergence of Harry Turtledove, 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 and others.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1990s - Harry Turtledove - Steampunk - Gregory Benford - Mike Resnick - S.M. Stirling - Kim Stanley Robinson - Harry Harrison

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Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been among the most prolific practitioners of alternate history. His books include a series in which the South won the American Civil War and another in which aliens invade Earth during the Second World War. Other stories by this author include one with the premise that America had not been colonised from Asia during the last ice age; as a result, the continent still has living mammoths and a hominid species other than homo sapiens.

Related Topics:
Harry Turtledove - The South - American Civil War - Second World War - America - Asia - Ice age - Mammoth - Hominid - Homo sapiens

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1992 saw the publication of Fatherland, a novel by writer Robert Harris, set in Europe following a Nazi victory in the Second World War. Fatherland has been critically acclaimed for portraying a more believable society and series of events than many other works of fiction set in a Nazi world.

Related Topics:
1992 - Fatherland - Robert Harris - Nazi - Second World War

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The Plot Against America (2004) by Philip Roth looks at an America where Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh is elected.

Related Topics:
The Plot Against America - 2004 - Philip Roth - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Charles Lindbergh

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