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Other Pasts, Different Presents, Alternative Futures

Jeremy Black

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Paperback

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English
Indiana University Press
03 August 2015
"What if there had been no World War I or no Russian Revolution? What if Napoleon had won at Waterloo in 1815, or if Martin Luther had not nailed his complaints to the church door at Wittenberg in 1517, or if the South had won the American Civil War? The questioning of apparent certainties or ""known knowns"" can be fascinating and, indeed, ""What if?"" books are very popular. However, this speculative approach, known as counterfactualism, has had limited impact in academic histories, historiography, and the teaching of historical methods. In this book, Jeremy Black offers a short guide to the subject, one that is designed to argue its value as a tool for public and academe alike. Black focuses on the role of counterfactualism in demonstrating the part of contingency, and thus human agency, in history, and the salutary critique the approach offers to determinist accounts of past, present, and future."

By:  
Imprint:   Indiana University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 15mm
Weight:   327g
ISBN:   9780253017048
ISBN 10:   0253017041
Pages:   254
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of many books including War and Technology (IUP, 2013), Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519 1871 (IUP, 2011), and War and the Cultural Turn. Black is a recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History.

Reviews for Other Pasts, Different Presents, Alternative Futures

[Black's] illustrative examples of 'what if, ' 'how, ' and 'why' will make readers sit back and wonder. Kirkus Reviews


  • Winner of Bronze Medal, World History category, 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

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