Customer Reviews (1)

Intelligent but ending anti-climatic.
Living in NY, I enjoyed reading about the "old NY" of Teddy Roosevelt; it was very well researched.Story was very intelligent and the entire book was written to reach conclusion which, I thought, was anti-climatic.The book is too long to sustain the excitement to the finish.
... Read more

Product Description
An all-American collection of essays on the pivotal moments in our nation's history by award-winning historians, the third in the bestselling series.

The "what if" concept is one of the most original and engaging on the current history bookshelf. The essays are chock-full of provocative ideas; they are as accessible to the general reader as they are to the scholar; and they are the perfect gift for the dedicated history buff on anyone's list.

In this new collection of never-before-published essays, our brightest historians speculate about some of America's more intriguing crossroads. Some irresistible highlights include: Caleb Carr (The Alienist) on America had there been no Revolution; Tom Wicker on the first time a vice president, John Tyler, succeeded a deceased president and its surprising ramifications; Jay Winik (April 1865) on the havoc that might have resulted if Booth had succeeded in his plan to assassinate Johnson and Seward as well as Lincoln; Antony Beevor (The Fall of Berlin 1945) on the possibility of Eisenhower's capture of Berlin before the Soviets' arrival there in 1945; and Robert Dallek (the upcoming An Unfinished Life about John F. Kennedy) on one of the most agonizing American "what if"s of all: what might have happened if JFK hadn't been assassinated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

great book!
In this book,noted experts state what would happen if events in history turned out different.Its nice to read what the future COULD havelooked like if certain events did or did not happen as they already have. highly recommended

A little context please
As a gamer, I have a special fondness for the What If series.Many gaming scenarios have been built around the different realities occuring from alternate history - heck, anyone can speculate on a different outcome of the Civil War, World War II, or the possibility of World War III.What If brings a level of expertise to the table, "preeminent historians" according to the back cover.

An important staple of an alternative history series is education, demonstrating how things could be different if a particular event or choice wasn't made.I learned a lot more about World War II from this book by what didn't happen, which helped reinforce why events unfolded as they did.In that regard, alternate history scenarios are a great teaching tool.

Unfortunately, the editor (and I blame the editor, Robert Cowley) doesn't seem to be able to rein in his writers.With this many essays, there's bound to be some differences in quality.But the writers never agree on the RULES of the essays themselves.

Not all the essays actually lay out alternate history. Some of the essays are essentially summed up as "WHEW!Boy are we lucky things turned out the way they did!"Which isn't nearly as educational as showing what could have happened.There are plenty of other experts that can simply tell us about the near misses of history.

Not all of the essays are grounded in actual history.It's fine to lay out alternate history, but for a neophyte who isn't familiar with the timeline of events, speculation without a comparison to the actual events just muddles the waters.When the writers use active voice, you have no idea if our guide to history is in fact speculating or retelling actual events as they happened.Opinion?Fact?Hypothesis?It's never clear.

Finally, some of the essays are outright fiction, Joe McCarthy's Secret Life being the most egregious example.So what, exactly, is this essay trying to prove?How easy it would be for McCarthy to actually be a member of the communists he was rooting out?What's the lesson here?

Some of these essays have been reprinted from the What If series before, which is odd - I imagine the group interested in this series already read the first volume and their inclusion "as a bonus" seems a little disingenuous.If the plan was to have this volume be a reference, it falls short of its goals.

That said, What Ifs? of American History is an interesting if uneven collection of opinions, predictions, and historylessons about America.Worth reading, but you might want to keep a history textbook nearby.

Very boring; returned the book after one day
A family member gave me this book, knowing that I was a fan of American history and "what ifs" of all varieties. I've never been a fan of the ultimately ahistorical Harry Turtledove-style novels, and I was interested in reading some alternative history that was a little more academic in scope. That said, this book was horribly boring. I'm not a light reader - just look at my other reviews - but I couldn't even begin to get into this book. Nothing interested me in the least, and after giving the book a try for less than twenty-four hours, I finally had to just take it back. It is one of only two books I've ever returned - that's how brainsuckingly uninteresting it was.

Not so good.
This is a good book if you like having an intellectual lecture to you. I was expecting something more along the lines of Turtledove or Birmingham and this was more like a dry analysis of what might have been as opposed to an interesting series of stories.

Kind of Disappointed
I truthfully wanted to enjoy this book.I really did.After reading this book, I now believe that there's very little point in analyzing what didn't happen as opposed to what did.It also seems like any historian can make up any silly hypothetical situation and write about it.For instance, the first chapter about how things would be different if the wind blew the Mayflower in a different direction.Well, sure, I don't think you can argue against that.What if aliens came down and gave President Truman the technology to develop the nude bomb?It seemed to me like that would have been just as valid of an essay to read.

Maybe I'm not being fair.There are some essays on key moments in American history, such as what if JFK wasn't shot.Unfortunately for me, I found the essays about the key moments in American history to be boring.And I love reading about history.

Other people here seemed to have loved this book, so I may be wrong. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from World Policy Journal, published by World Policy Institute on March 22, 1997. The length of the article is 4807 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: A proposal to end terrorism through offensive military action against terrorists' state sponsors has failed to consider the lessons from failed counterterrorist policies. Though considered as a form of warfare, terrorism cannot be stemmed by mere military intervention. Counterterrorist strategies will be more effective if psychological, economic and diplomatic approaches are considered.

Citation Details
Title: Terrorism: who is fighting whom? (response to article by Caleb Carr, World Policy Journal, Winter 1996/1997 issue)
Author: Bruce Hoffman
Publication: World Policy Journal (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1997
Publisher: World Policy Institute
Volume: v14Issue: n1Page: p97(8)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who survived alone for almost five years on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, The Mysterious Island is considered by many to be Jules Verne’s masterpiece. “Wide-eyed mid-nineteenth-century humanistic optimism in a breezy, blissfully readable translation by Stump” (Kirkus Reviews), here is the enthralling tale of five men and a dog who land in a balloon on a faraway, fantastic island of bewildering goings-on and their struggle to survive as they uncover the island’s secret.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Mysterious Island
Price great - shipping astronomical!I ordered it June 6 and didn't get it until July 5!!!Yes, you stated it could take that long but seriously that is just ridiculous!I won't be buying any more books through Amazon...

Review
We're all different, and we all like different things. However I would recommend this book without hesitation to anyone. It is a must read, as is the case with all other novels Jules Verne has written.

Review of The Mysterious Island
I loved and hated this book. In The Mysterious Island Jules Verne creates a story similar to The Swiss Family Robinson story that I grew up loving. But this book is much more in depth and provides an intriguing mystery to spice things up.

Five men escape from America during the Civil War in a balloon. They are blown far south and are wrecked upon an island with no supplies.

Verne goes in depth in how the men manage to make a colony out of nothing. In their party are an engineer, a newspaper man, a freed slave, a boy and a sailor. With their combined knowledge (and the superb knowledge of the engineer) they manage to make an island life worthy of making even a modern person wishing to visit.

Throughout the book Verne drops "mysterious occurances". These keep the reader highly interested despite pages and pages of descriptions that Verne is notorious for. Despite the slow movement throughout 75% of the book this is, by far, my favorite of his novels. If you are interested in survival (and the men in this book are what a "real" survivor is) and science this book is certain to satisfy you

L'Ile Mystérieuse de Jules Verne, the perfect page-turner
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne is a wonderful book. On every page you share the exciting adventures of the small group of interesting, lively and resourceful people who explore this island on which they landed by accident.Unexpected incidents lead them gradually to suspect that someone somewhere is watching them and somehow helping them.What they discover in the end, you'll never forget, it'll stay with you for ever and make you dream beautiful dreams.
When I read this book in my early teens, and eventually found who that someone was, I fell madly in love with that someone, and my hope was to meet his equivalent in real life one day.

great read
Great book over all, good pace, good story.Was a little worried that it would be a knock off of Robinson Crusoe but this story goes in an entirely different direction.In the evenings I looked forward to getting sit down with this book, I think this book is much better than"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".The 700 pages never slowed down or felt to be dragging or cheap pulp. ... Read more