ANHOW Review of Books: <I>Almost America</I> by Steve Tally -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 11:21:28 07/01/04 Thu
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of Books: Almost America by Steve Tally

Full title: Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: A "WHAT IF" History of the U.S>
Genre: History/Alternate history
Published: 2000 by HarperCollins

Short Summary:

This is 28 short alternate histories of the United States based on 28 "what ifs". For example, What if Robert E. Lee had joined the Union army in the Civil War? (In reality, he was offered a prominent post) What if Nixon had refused to resign following the House Judiciary Committee vote to impeach him?

Each alternate history is preceded by a brief real history of what happened so the reader will not be lost.

My review:

Some of these are really thought-provoking and well thought out. I especially enjoyed the one concerning Teddy Roosevelt following through with his plan to ban college football unless they did something to curb the extreme violence (23 young men died in the 1905 season). The consequences were interesting and I thought very plausible.

The book is marred by a few factual errors. They really are not terribly important to the outcome of the author's alternate histories but show a sloppiness in editing. Some examples are placing the Revolutionary War fort of Kaskaskia in present-day Kentucky when it is actually in Illinois and saying that people blamed Lincoln's assassination on people who were wanting to revive the Union cause (obviously the Union cause was in great shape by the point of the war - I assume his editors did not catch it and he meant to say Confederate).

Despite the errors, I give this book an A-

This book has its own website - here is a link to it: www.almostamerica.com

Here is the Amazon.com link: Amazon.com link. there are a number of reviews here as well.

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