Confederate States of America: What Might Have Been

What if the South had won the Civil War, and what would the world be like today? Many historians have considered this scenario and plenty of science fiction collections have been constructed around stories of such - but THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA uses real facts and analysis to blend historical plausibility and realistic scenarios to show how a Confederate-run America would change not only this country, but the world. Even economics are explored, along with international relationships changed by such events. An intriguing survey any collection strong in Civil War history will want: it offers more scholarship and seasoned, rational reasoning than most approaches.

When I first purchased this book I thought I was going to read yet another "what if" story of the South winning the American Civil War, maybe with some new idea but basically with the same pattern already seen in other such products. Thus I was very satisfied when, page after page, I found solid facts in the first chapters concerning the "why" and the "how" the Civil War came to happen (together with a brief conduct of the real war itself), followed by the "story" of an alternate Civil War based on those same facts but ending with a Confederate victory. Most important, the author finally deals with the aftermath of a Confederate victory, both from a political and economical point of view (something not easily found in other such products) trying to draw conclusions based on various possible alternatives. I found the presence of verifible figures and hard data very helpful to fully understand a chapter of American history that I, as an Italian reader, did not know but was eager to analyze. I found the book very well written, easy to follow, and enough imaginative in the chapter concerning the "other war" to satisfy my anticipations, but most of all I found it indispensable to fill in my gaps about that part of world history that I could not study in Italy. All in all a very good product, I would surely recommend it to all lovers of real and fictional history.

This is a solid, well-thought out "what might have been" study that goes beyond the sensational or the mythical. Here the reader is treated to the political history of the Confederate States of America as it might evolve. Almost 50 years ago McKinley Kantor penned one of the best pioneering works on the question "what if the South won in 1865?" (he has the North and South reunited by 1915 in the face of WWI and the growing threat to both side-by-side Americas); it also was an excellent political and military "first cut" to a fascinating subject not only for Civil War buffs but any one interested in "Alternative History". Ransom's book is plausible in its projections based on the facts of the early formation and struggle by the CSA to become independent. He provides controversial thinking on what might happen if the CSA were successful, but his line of reasoning is what makes the book engaging and thoughtful. Ransom writes a good read, and the scholarship is of the quality to be quoted in other similar, high-quality studies. Joseph Richard Goldman

Roger Ransom has written one of the most provocative efforts in the field of counterfactual speculation which I have had the chance to read. Taking as his challenge the well-plowed ground of the American Civil War, Professor Ransom has managed to offer a series of genuinely innovative insights into the possible result of a Confederate victory. Rather than picking one "point of divergence," Ransom instead opts for what one might call a "semi-chaotic collage" of mutually reinforcing changes, resulting in a military stalemate in 1864 that in turn produces a collapse of the North's political will to continue the fight. The changes hypothesized are plausible, and their "snowballing" effect makes a good case for Ransom's basic thesis that the South's best chance for victory lay in an improved performance by the Confederacy's Western and Eastern forces, combined. The true strength of Ransom's work, however, does not lie in its narrative describing the battlefield course of (yet another) alternate American Civil War. Rather, it is in the analysis of the possible consequences of a Southern victory, and particularly the international consequences of a division of the North American Continent between two rival American Unions, where this alternate history truly excels. Professor Ransom describes how the ensuing rivalry between USA and CSA would have affected the relationships between the Great Powers of Europe, as they are drawn into the USA-CSA rivalry, and for reasons of their own vital interests. Ransom also directly tackles the feel good notion that North and South would have quickly shaken off the bad feelings of a successful "War for Southern Independence" and developed a friendly relationship, allowing the two American Unions to operate virtually as one, in confronting the challenges of the 20th Century. (MacKinlay Kantor's Civil War Centennial piece for LIFE magazine on the subject is perhaps the best-known of the "Panglossian" takes on a Confederate victory.) Ransom persuasively argues that the divisions between North and South which ruptured into inter-regional war in 1861 reflected profoundly different approaches to basic questions of socio-economic organization and political order, and that these differences would have driven the two American Unions even further apart as each in the wake of Southern independence worked to define itself in contradistinction to the other. Professor Ransom also grapples insightfully with economic issues that alternate history writers tend for some reason to avoid, and the resulting analysis adds a crucial and genuinely illuminating dimension to his work (e.g., he addresses the international economic factors that would have shaped the post-Secession prospects for a "King Cotton" not overthrown by Northern arms). I am a lawyer by trade who has tried his hand at alternate history, and the venerable AH subject of a Southern victory has always held a special fascination for me. I confess to sharing Professor

Roger Ransom has written an academic exercise showing how the South could had defeated the North during the Civil War (Stonewall Jackson surviving his wound and General Lee calling off Pickett's Charge, so that the war would be a stalemate for the 1864 elections). The first half of the book is a basic primer on the background and events leading up to the Civil War. The more interesting section that follows is too short -- the alternative history of two nations (USA and CSA) co-existing in America up until 1918. For example, Mr. Ransom hypothesises that Woodrow Wilson of the CSA would have opposed Theodore Roosevelt of the USA during WW I. This "what if" concept was done first and better by Harry Turtledove in his 8 volume series that currently stretches from 1862-1942 (begining with "How Few Remain"). Many of his historical assumptions seemed to be borrowed from the previous creations of Mr. Turtledove. The reader is also referred to "Dixie Victorious" edited by Peter Tsouras with ten essays by different authors on possible turning points for a Southern victory in the Civil War.