The Great “What Ifs” of the American Civil War: Historians Tackle the Conflict’s Most Intriguing Possibilities - Chris Mackowski (editor), Brian Matthew Jordan (Editor) Audiobook

Written by Chris Mackowski (editor), Brian Matthew Jordan (Editor)
Read by Jon Vertullo
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

“What If . . . ?” Every Civil War armchair general asks the question. Possibilities unfold. Disappointments vanish. Imaginations soar. More questions arise. “What if . . .” can be more than an exercise in wistful fantasy. A serious inquiry sparks rigorous exploration, demands critical thinking, and unlocks important insights.

The Great “What Ifs” of the American Civil Historians Tackle the Conflict’s Most Intriguing Possibilities is a collection of fourteen essays by the historians at Emerging Civil War, and includes a Foreword by acclaimed alternate history writer Peter G. Tsouras.

Each entry focuses on one of the most important events of the war and unpacks the options of the moment. To understand what happened, we must look with a clear and objective eye at what could have happened, with the full multitude of choices before us. “What if ” is a tool for illumination. These essays also explode the assumptions people make when they ask “what if ” and then jump to wishful conclusions.

This collection of thoughtful essays offers not alternate histories or counterfactual scenarios, but an invitation to ask, to learn, and to wonder, “What if . . . ?”

Table of Contents

“Paths Not Thoughts of an Alternate Historian,” by Peter G. Tsouras

Introduction by Chris Mackowski

Chapter “‘Persistently Misunderstood’: The What Ifs of Shiloh,” by Timothy B. Smith

Chapter “The What Ifs of Antietam,” by Kevin Pawlak

Chapter “What If Great Britain Had Intervened in the American Civil War?” by Dwight Hughes

Chapter “What If Someone Else Had Been Offered Command of the Army of the Potomac?” by Frank Jastrzembski

Chapter “What If Stonewall Jackson Had Not Been Shot?” by Kristopher D. White

Chapter “To Go Around to the Right? Longstreet at Gettysburg,” by Dan Welch

Chapter “What If Jefferson Davis Hadn’t Been So Loyal to Braxton Bragg?” by Cecily Nelson Zander

Chapter “What If Robert E. Lee Had Struck a Blow at the North Anna River?” by Chris Mackowski

Chapter “‘Rally the loyal men of Missouri’: What If the 1864 Missouri Expedition Had Been Successful?” by Kristen Trout

Chapter “‘A New Endorsement of Abraham Lincoln’: Could Lincoln Have Won Reelection Without Sherman’s and Sheridan’s Successes?” by Jonathan A. Noyalas

Chapter “What If Robert E. Lee Waged a Guerrilla War with his Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865?” by Barton A. Myers

Chapter “‘What If Lincoln Lived?’ The Civil War’s Perennial Counterfactual Question,” by Brian Matthew Jordan and Evan C. Rothera