What Might Have Been?: Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History: Imaginary History from Twelve Leading Historians

Roberts, Introduced and Edited by Andrew

ISBN 10: 0297848771 / ISBN 13: 9780297848776

Published by W&N, 2004

About this Item

Hardcover in Fine condition with dustwrapper in Fine condition. First edition, Signed and Inscribed by Author, pp xv, 188. Alternate histories from leading military historians.

Seller Inventory # 004413

Bibliographic Details

• Title: What Might Have Been?: Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History: Imaginary History from Twelve Leading Historians
• Publisher: W&N
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297848771
• ISBN 13: 9780297848776
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed and Inscribed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • History
  • Military History

About this title

Synopsis

Throughout history, great and terrible events have often hinged on sheer luck. Now, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has assembled a team of his prominent colleagues, asking them to consider what might have happened if major world events had gone differently. Concentrating on their areas of expertise, distinguished historians re-imagine vital moments in history. George W. Bush’s former White House adviser, David Frum, considers a President Gore response to 9/11, while Conrad Black wonders how the U.S. might have entered World War II if the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Harbor. Whether it’s Stalin fleeing Moscow in 1941, as envisioned by Simon Sebag Montefiore, or Napoleon not being forced to retreat from it in 1812, as pictured by Adam Zamoyski, these essays posit a fascinating, sometimes horrifying parallel universe.

About the Author

Andrew Roberts, 40, might not have got into Cambridge if the head of history at Caius College had not been amused by why he was chucked out of school. His books would not have been written if Roberts had been even half-way competent at his initial career choice, merchant banking. So he would not have won the Wolfson and James Stern Silver Pen prizes, nor would have become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. More troubling to him still, if he had not sat next to the biographer Leonie Frieda in the Poissonerie restaurant in Sloane Avenue, she might not be his girlfriend today.