Introduction to the Trend and Growing Alternate History Genre

Pop Culture Embraces Fascination with Counter-Factual Scenarios. TV series. Games. A Popular New Genre Emerges, To Pique Student Interest in History. PlayingHistory.org Aggregates Dozens of Games About History and Humanities Popular TV Series 'Outlander' Depicts Time Travel from 20th to 18th Centuries; Interview with Author Gabaldon. BBC series, SS-GB: If Britain Lost to the Nazis. ‘Timeless’ …

Why Alternate History Is So Popular

The alternate history genre is now about 200 years old. It "reflects changing notions of history and society," writes Lorraine Boissoneault in Smithsonian Magazine. "Across pop culture, history is being unraveled and remade." She cites many current examples of alternate history and time travel in movies, TV shows, Youtube.com videos, and books. Until the 19th century, "theologians …

Popular Author Harry Turtledove On Creating Alternate Histories

Harry Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is one of the most popular authors of time travel, fantasy or counterfactual history. He has a Ph.D. in Byzantine history. In the 2009 interview above, he says he seeks plausibility in his alternative scenarios and timelines, but he also seeks to tell entertaining stories and sell books. His purpose is …

300 Best Alternate History Novels and Stories

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/300.Best_Alternate_History_Novels_and_Stories

Pop Culture Embraces Counter-Factual Scenarios

The hit television series "Big Bang Theory" features a game called "counter-factuals," with the culturally iconic nerd Sheldon Cooper and his girlfriend Amy playing and defending their conjectures.. The Anti-Defamation League uses counter-factuals to inspire social activism... Youtube.com measures millions of views for alternate history videos... Online game-makers such as Steam, with 25 million registered …

Best Novels of the Alternative History Genre

Adrian McGinty, the (UK) Guardian), February 10, 2015: "With Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle now showing on Amazon, alternative history is hotter than ever.The Man in the High Castle was not the first alternative history novel, nor even the first Nazis-win-the-war novel, but it is still probably …

Has Idea of Progress Disappeared? Why Counterfactuals Are So Popular

"Counterfactuals", as such "what-if" speculations are generally termed by the aficionados, are often claimed to open up the past by demonstrating the myriad possibilities, thus freeing history from the straitjacket of determinism and restoring agency to the people. But in fact they imprison the past in an even tighter web: one tiny change in the timeline …

Sheer Volume of Counter-Factual History Books Makes Genre Impossible to Ignore

Karen Shook: "What might have happened if Britain had not gone to war in 1914 and Germany had won the war against France and Russia? Would there have been no Weimar crises, Hitler and Nazism, and no Second World War, with its long list of horrors? Moreover, would not Europe today look much as it …

Detailed Readings of History Almost Always Lead to Slender Threads, What Ifs.

The more I read of history, the more convinced I am that history turns, in the words of Jeff Greenfield, "not on a dime but on a plugged nickel." In other words, history often turns on what contemporaries may view as miniscule decisions -- for example, a split-second impulse to exit stage-right instead of stage-left, …

Academic Courses in Counterfactual History

I frequently think that alternative or counterfactual histories are a good teaching tool to explain the significance of real history. When students study the methods of professional historians, thoroughly research events and offer carefully reasoned speculations on "what might have happened if...," this can be a fun way to learn. If you really understand an event …