Review of "What If?: The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been," edited by Robert Crowley
Review of
What If?: The World’s Foremost Military
Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, edited by Robert
Crowley, ISBN 0425176428
Five out of five stars
Informed, plausible speculation about forks in history
The butterfly
effect is a well known and genuine phenomenon in science. It means that the
actions of a butterfly flapping its’ wings can lead to a major storm thousands
of miles away. In other words, very small changes in initial conditions can
lead to dramatic changes in later events. There is no question that small
changes in historical events would lead to significant changes later. The
example that is probably most often stated is what would have happened if the
assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler that took place before September 1,
1939, had been successful.
In this book
some of the foremost military historians look back on a specific historical event
and ponder how the world would have changed if the situation had evolved
differently. The events considered were certainly major. Likely most significant
was the one that took place in 1242. The Mongol army came from the east and
swept all the way into eastern Europe. They defeated the armies of Poland and
Hungary and left an incredible amount of death in their wake as they built
their empire, the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world.
Yet, in 1242
the Mongol army withdrew. Ogadai, the third son of Genghis Khan and the current
occupant of the Mongol throne had died. Their law required that they return to
their homeland in order to elect a new khan. How strange it must have been to
the Europeans that anticipated widespread death and destruction to watch the Mongols
pack up and depart.
Other events
include the near death of George Washington at the hands of a British soldier
that had him in his sights, the events after the assassination at Sarajevo that
led to the start of World War I, if the weather had turned bad on June 6, 1941,
and led to the D-Day invasion failing, had even a few American planes failed or
were delayed in the battle of Midway in 1942, if Hitler had moved through the Middle
East in 1941 instead of attacking the Soviet Union, and if the Spanish Armada
had defeated the British fleet in 1588.
These
intelligent speculations regarding what could easily have happened and the
dramatic alterations in the historical timeline are some of the most
entertaining and thought-provoking items that you can read. One of the best
aspects of history is you can read it and then think how things might easily have
been different. This is one of the best books regarding potential history that is
available. I found it so worthy that once I completed it I immediately ordered
volume II.
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