History Can Veer Dramatically In An Instant

Veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield has a book, “Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics.” In it, he writes:
“History doesn’t turn on a dime; it turns on a plugged nickel.” History “is as much a product of chance as of the broader forces at play.”

“Geography, topography, ethnicity, ideology, climate, natural resources, the search for wealth, mass migrations, all set the framework; but the random roll of the dice is as potent a force as any,” he wrote. “A missed meeting, a shift in the weather, a slightly different choice of words open up a literally limitless series of possibilities.”