"Counterfactuals" Topic

What Might Have Been, edited by Andrew Roberts contains 12 very entertaining 'what ifs'.

As well as reading this I have just watched, for the seventh time, one of my favourite movies Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow.

This makes me wonder if Counterfactuals are merely entertainment or do they serve a more serious purpose?

Entertainment, though I've listened to an excellent counterfactual lecture recently in a Pritzker Military Library podcast on the Pacific War. I can't recall the actual podcast, but it's worth a listen to if counterfactuals are your thing.

The big problems with counterfactuals for me (YMMV) is the scope and purpose of them. Too many are outright fantasy based on wanting to make certain historical figures look better (e.g. "What if Hitler didn't commit genocide on the Jew's of Europe"), or are so unlikely that it just doesn't make sense (what if the Japs bombed the oil tankers and fleet logistics at Pearl Harbour – these were at the very bottom of their hit list, right at the bottom).

Well done, very interesting

Poorly done, really silly

Properly done, a usseful tool – they can make you consider what other factors might have kept the world on its 'historical' course, as well as a means of considering the effects of particular events.

Otherwise, I'd agree with Frederick and McWong.

Properly done can be a lot of fun.

Too often, they are really a waste of time.

Only one seems to have had a wider effect: Hector Bywater's "The Great Pacific War"

History is hard to derail.
For instance, "what if" the Yanks had been ambushed at Midway, instead of the Japanese? Jeez, the war might have dragged on for another 4 or 6 months!

All too often, the writers of counterfactuals don't do their ing research, which frankly irks me to no end.

Especially when it ends up published. Yeesh.

Alot of alternative history is written without an understanding of the social, politicial realities of the time. They only want to look at the military. They don't understand the people or times and thus it makes for a really bad what if. The best alternative histories are the ones that make just a few slight changes and are possible and the build from there.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly? (With apologies to John Belushi and SNL.) It was a pretty well researched skit. Garrett Morris as a US Air Force General and "expert" on the subject: "She would be *extremely* vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire."

:)