Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: a "What If" History of the U.S.
With less restraint and more whimsy than exhibited in editor Robert Cowley'sWhat If?The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999), Tally proffers 28 sketches of alternative courses in American history. His queries about Babe Ruth, had the Red Sox not sold him to the Yankees, and about TR, had he succeeded in outlawing football, add a lighter tone to the weightier substance beneath his scenarios about politics and war. Judging by frequency, Tally is most attracted to counterfactuals about presidential succession: in the actually deadlocked 1824 election, he posits John C. Calhoun manipulating himself into the presidency; Tally knocks off Andrew Johnson, as was intended by the Lincoln assassins; and he spins off the famousChicago Tribuneblunder, "Dewey Defeats Truman." There is more about chief magistrates, several about warriors Washington, Tecumseh, and Lee, and but one on social conditions, which keys off Upton Sinclair'sThe Jungle. In all his creations, however, Tally brings a solid grounding in the actual history that supports his suppositions. His populist pitch will certainly strike with history buffs ready for light diversion.Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved