Virtual History

All students and scholars of history should not consider themselves properly versed in the philosophy of history until they have read through this book's introduction a few times!

Clearly the negative reviews of this book indicate that it's message is going to be difficult, mind ripping and beyond the capability of history addicts. Just as books by David Irving are extremely difficult to even consider, because they tend to go against the momentum of some seventy years of non-stop agiprop by the gereontocrat historians who like Gilbert and Schlesinger just spout the party line of the moment, and that party line that is best suited to career advancement. I am going to read this and find that kernel of brilliance I already know is in there. "It is History that travels straight from history maker to document, and from the archives to the writer and his book, without political input and free of academic prejudice, it is History that cannot be bought, and cannot be bought off."  Wish me luck.CiaoSignorotto Riccardo

This is a collection of essays by serious historians who have plotted "virtual histories" based on the premise that one key event happened differently than in reality. (one complaint: too centered on the English-speaking world) Convincing arguments that Charles I had everything going right for him, that the American Revolution was a sheer fluke that almost nobody wanted, that Britain should have allowed Germany to win the First World War, and that the Soviet state still had many decades of life ahead of it when Gorbachev arrived, are presented with gusto. Other essays are not really counterfactual at all, and should not have been included. The editor's introduction is also too long and contains a lot of ranting about teleology and contingency equations--ignore it. Despite these holes, the book is compulsive reading for history fans.

A quite outstanding book....the section on British Ireland is enough to turn any Irish Republican in his tracks.