American Empire: Blood and Iron

...takes place during the immediately previous generation, on the North American continent rather than Europe, but under startlingly identical circumstances to the Third Reich in the real world. The Freedom Party, partially founded by embittered Great War veteran Jake Featherston, draws on racism, demagoguery and runaway economic inflation due to war reparations. They should have beaten the damnyankees in the war, should have kept minorities "in their place" by putting down their Socialist uprising before it had a chance to cripple the war effort--but the mainstream leadership in Richmond sold everyone out. As one of the central characters in this book, Featherston becomes a Dixie would-be Fuehrer running against a moderate mainstream candidate who's the direct descendant of a Civil War general. In the USA, Socialist Party standard bearer Eugene Debs sees the handwriting on the wall and awards his delegate base to labor expert Upton Sinclair, after having the torch passed to him by former President Abe Lincoln, who wasn't assassinated as in the real world. Among his grassroots supporters is Flora Hamburger, a charming and idealistic Congresswoman from New York. Being of Cold War roots, I find it peculiar to be turned on by a "commie"! Enough to forget the fact that Socialists obsesses about class struggle to the point of belief that "defense" and "foreign policy" as such are unneccessary--who gives a hoot about all that nationalist crapola? The answer to that question is that you can repudiate nationalism all you want--until some nation that believes in it attacks you. I admire Turtledove's capacity to recognize that fact despite the fact that he's clearly not a believer in nationalism himself. But after all, he would have that clear a vision on weltpolitik--he was once a history prof. In conquered Canada, three stories unfold. One is of Arthur MacGregor, an embittered Manitoba farmer whose son was executed for sabotage by occupying US forces and plots revenge against the elderly General Custer, who Turtledove also keeps alive for purposes of the story. In the puppet "republic" of Quebec, Lucien Galtier must come to terms with his daughter's marriage to an American doctor who stayed on as a resident alien when the military pulled out. Far from the Ugly American, Galtier's new son-in-law hauls his college French out of mothballs and speaks only that language around his in-laws. Elsewhere, former officer of occupying forces John Moss falls for a local woman and sets up a law practice so as to be near her and possibly win her love. This book was supposed to have been a fourth volume to Turtledove's "Great War" series, but is now the first volume in what might end up another trilogy based on a post-Great War era. I found Turtledove's "Colonization" trilogy a bit tiresome, based as it was on his previous "Worldwar" tetralogy. That saga had been based on a rather weak sci-fi premise "borrowed" from TV's "V" miniseries and had proven that, as an alterna

I read another Turtledove book, Colonization: Aftershocks, at the same time as I read Blood and Iron. I critized Aftershocks for only progressing about 2 years in the plot line. I believe about 10 years were covered in this book. I think that is about the right balance between character development and seeing their being influenced by the events around them.One thing I liked about both books, well into their respective series is that no new characters were introduced. We don't need anymore.One major plot line from the prior books came to a conclusion - the New England war widow - whose husband was killed by a CSS submariner and the submariner meet - 'enough said or plot is spoiled.I enjoyed reading this book and had the feeling that events in this alternative timeline were moving along in a well paced and realistic fashion.

I've read most of Turtledove's alternate history, and I'll agree that he's as good as anyone.In this story, the USA and CSA are at peace. Turtledove's portrait of postwar actions in America (both halves) draw on actual history of other countries in the era after WWI; the best way to describe it is that it's the rise of Nazism and socialism, but with a distinctly American overlay. A number of characters we've come to know well are transformed in motives and goals. For a Turtledove book with no wars in it, there really is a lot of movement, and there's even some closure to longstanding plot threads--an essential development if the series is to remain fresh. It was the way the author built toward the multiple climaxes (nicely sequenced) that caused me to think, three quarters of the way through, "Wow. This is the best thing he's done since _Guns of the South_."From a technical standpoint, Turtledove's writing is superb. Descriptive, intelligent, entertaining.The small downsides are minor quibbles. For example, the way his Francophone characters speak does convey a French personality, but he need not go so far as to have a character say 'you have reason' for 'you're right'. I still think he has one or two too many subplots going. But frankly, both are matters of taste. Neither significantly affected my enjoyment.Great stuff.

Blood and Iron brings us back to a world that was born during the American War of Secession, and has been visited before in How Few Remain and the Great War trilogy. We are shown a North America consisting of not three countries (Canada, the USA, and Mexico), but of five (those three, plus the Confederate States and the newly formed Republic of Quebec). World War I wasn't a conflict that went on overseas, either. War was waged all over North America, from the American Southwest to the Canadian Mainland. The Americans and their allies won, the Confederates and their allies lost, and the peace brings prosperity to the victors, and crisis upon crisis, poverty, resentment and hatred to the defeated. Mirroring our own real world, the defeated dream dangerous dreams, of regaining their territories, their pride, and their freedom. Turtledove brings back old characters whom we've grown to love or hate, and introduces us to new faces, each with its own story, conflicts, thoughts, fears, dreams, hopes, virtues and sins. This is a damaged world, nightmarishly different from ours, still recovering from the wounds of the last war while getting ready for the next conflict. I find the best part about this book and the rest of the series is the way Turtledove depicts the wars through real people, enough so that there are no good or bad guys, just human beings, and readers will often root for completely different sides, be it Yankees or Rebels, Canadians, Quebecois, Red Souther Blacks, New Yorker Socialists, etc.... This book builds on solid ground, and weaves a fantasy so real, you can't help but wonder how on earth couldn't all this have happened.

Harry Turtledove continues his sprawling saga of the Confederate Nation in the aftermath of defeat. Prices are rising as the currency devalues, the old way of life is fading fast as the CSA must pay reparations to the USA. All of our characters return, as they try and rebuild their lives following the war; Jake Featherston builds his Freedom Party to restore the CSA, along with the help of Anne Colleton and Roger Kimball in an eerie parrallel of Nazism. While the Confederates try to rebuild, Flora Hamburger and the Socialists try and wrest power away from Teddy Roosevelt and the Democrats to salvage a USA wracked with labor strife, while the soldiers of the war desperately try and hang on to the strength that helped them win. There is little war in this novel, but Turtledove sets the stage for a WWII pitting CSA vs USA in a most interesting way. As we end the book, Featherston is considering ways to spread his message of hatred via radio broadcast, and there are tantalizing hints of former Confederates fighting in various wars in South America (think Spain in the early 30's) who are bringing information about barrels (tanks) and other techniques of war home for future use. That Turtledove will make Featherston his Confederate Hitler is a foregone conclusion, but it remains to be seen how the next war will play out as there is little info in this book as the state of the Confederacie's allies, England, France and Japan, and there are hints that the USA doesn't exactly trust the German allies that helped them win. I said it after Breakthroughs, and I'll say it again, DAMN! I wish he would write faster!!!!! One year plus is a looooong time to wait between books when they are this well written!