What if?

Historians & philosophers have pondered historical turning points--events that altered the course of civilization. These essays ask "What if..."--Geo Washington hadn't made his escape from the British on Long Island in the dawn of 8/29/1776?--A Confederate aide hadn't accidentally lost Gen. Rbt E. Lee's plans for invading the North?--Alexander the Great had been slain in battle, instead of saved by a bodyguard?--The D-Day invasion had failed?--The Mongols had conquered Europe? Fascinating & frightening, What If? offers reflections on the monumental events of the past & speculations as to what things might be like had things gone differently.
List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Introduction/Rbt Cowley
Infectious alternatives: the plague that saved Jerusalem, 701 BC/Wm H. McNeill
A good night's sleep can do wonders/Barbara N. Porter
No glory that was Greece: the Persians win at Salamis, 480 BC/Victor Davis Hanson
Conquest denied: the premature death of Alexander the Great/Josiah Ober
Furor Teutonicus: the Teutoburg forest, AD 9/Lewis H. Lapham
The dark ages made lighter: the consequences of two defeats/Barry S. Strauss
The death that saved Europe: the Mongols turn back/Cecelia Holland
If only it had not been such a wet summer: the critical decade of the 1520s/ Theodore K. Rabb
If the Holy League hadn't dithered/Peter Pierson
The immolation of Hérnan Cortés: Tenochtitlán, 6/30/1521/Ross Hassig
The repulse of the English fireships: the Spanish Armada triumphs, 8/8/1588/Geoffrey Parker
Unlikely victory: 13 ways the Americans could have lost the Revolution/Thomas Fleming
George Washington's gamble/Ira D. Gruber
What the fog wrought: the Revolution's Dunkirk, 8/29/1776/David McCullough
Ruler of the world: Napoleon's missed opportunities/Alistair Horne
Napoleon wins at Waterloo/Caleb Carr
If the lost order hadn't been lost: Rbt E. Lee humbles the Union/James M. McPherson
A Confederate Cannae & other scenarios: how the Civil War might have turned out differently/Stephen W. Sears
Vietnam in America, 1865/Tom Wicker
The what ifs of 1914: the world war that should never have been/ Robert Cowley
Bismarck's empire: stillborn/James Chace
Thanks, but no cigar/David Clay Large
The armistice of desperation/Dennis E. Showalter
How Hitler could have won the war: the drive for the Middle East, 1941/John Keegan
What a taxi driver wrought/Williamson Murray
Triumph of the dictators/David Fromkin
Our midway disaster: Japan springs a trap, 6/4/1942/Theodore F. Cook, Jr
The case of the missing carriers/Elihu Rose
D Day fails: atomic alternatives in Europe/Stephen E. Ambrose
The Soviet invasion of Japan/Robert Cowley
Funeral in Berlin: the Cold War turns hot/David Clay Large
China without tears: if Chiang Kai-shek hadn't gambled in 1946/ Arthur Waldron
A quagmire avoided?/Ted Morgan
The end/Robert L. O'Connell