Speculative History, anyone?

After going through Victorian romance, classic horror and realistic fiction, I’ve started reading the What If? series of books on speculative history, edited by Ronald Cowley. I bought both of them at one of Ateneo Literary Society’s usual book sales because I remembered my history professor raving about them to his students back in sophomore year. Now that I’ve read them, I’m starting to regret not picking them up sooner.

What If? volumes are collections of essays that cover pivotal moments in world history and what might have occurred if things had gone differently. The first volume covers pivotal moments in military history; the second has a more general mix for both history lovers and casual browsers. Overall, the series covers topics like Jesus Christ, Socrates, the Hun invasions of Europe, Alexander the Great, Martin Luther, the American Cival War and World Wars I & II. The narrative isn’t your usual run-of-the-mill (and oftentimes snore-worthy) academic stuff… the writers, in fact, purposefully present their topics as they would a story. In some ways, you could say that this is how history ought to be taught and written. It’ll also leave us with a wider perspective of history in general, and how sometimes, the right (or wrong) people just happened to get lucky.

I’m yet to find either one of the What If? volumes on the shelves of the regular bookstores — I bought my copies second hand from Avalon.ph during one of Ateneo Literary Society’s semestral book sales. It may, however, be possible to order it from A Different Bookstore, Powerbooks, or Fully Booked.