alternate history – Page 2

Submitted with one comment.

I’d normally link to where I saw this, but it had… objectionable tags.

Contemplating the Mangum, Wade, Marshall, Wallace, & Albert Presidential Administrations.

These five being part of a nifty little speculation in alternate history over at io9. Each one of those represent the people who would have become President if (respectively) Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Wilson, FDR, and/or Nixon had died, gotten impeached, and/or resigned at a reasonably plausible moment. Of the bunch of them, I think that I like the possibilities of Thomas Riley Marshall best; in fact, he’ll be useful for something in the back of my head.

If you think that this is a weird discussion… well, it is. But imagine American history without Teddy Roosevelt or Chester A Arthur as Presidents – which could have very easily happened – and you might see the possibilities there.

I wonder if Turtledove & Zabel will ever finish this?

“This” being the alternate history book WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: The Impeachment & Trial of John F. Kennedy, Written by Harry Turtledove & Bryce Zabel, which postulates as its divergence point the failed assassination of JFK. They’ve got three chapters up at the site, and it looks like a pretty good story – but there hasn’t been any action on this for almost two years, which seems a shame. Harry Turtledove‘s a master at the genre, and we’re about due for some serious reexamining of the Kennedy era.