WHAT IF Interest Group
Purpose: To study the paths that were or could have been taken so we may better understand the paths ahead of us.
Membership Status: On Hiatus
Requirements: curiosity, imagination, a desire to travel in the 4th dimension.
Meeting Time: On the first Friday of the month, from 10 a.m. to noon ± (can be modified if needed)
Meeting Location: Santa Cruz City – East Side
Discussion Coordinator: Phil Lynch
Contact: what.if.alternative.history@gmail.com or 831-426-1837
A decent body of writing exists on alternative histories and what effect different outcomes might have had on subsequent history, on our lives, and on the future. Look Magazine (Nov 22, 1960) had an article by MacKinley Kantor titled “If the South Had Won the Civil War” and Look Magazine (Dec 19, 1961) had an article by William L Shirer titled “If Hitler Had Won World War II”. The articles were written by historians who used their knowledge of the actual histories to make credible predictions of what would have happened had outcomes been different. These articles got me interested in learning and understanding history through attempting to imagine how life would have been different if events had taken a different course
History has a reputation as a dull subject. Why study it? Because it is the story of real people and what happened to them. It is a story more intriguing than fiction. It is a story that can teach us of the triumphs and tragedies experienced by our predecessors. If we can decipher its lessons, it is a roadmap to our future. Consider these quotes: [Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana]; [Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it. - Edmund Burke];[ Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history. - Aldus Huxley] [History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again - Maya Angelou] [History is a vast early warning system. - Norman Cousins] [History never looks like history when you are living through it. - John W. Gardner] [History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided. - Konrad Adenauer] [Man seems to insist on ignoring the lessons available from history. - Norman Borlaug] [History is nothing if not an epic tale of missed opportunities - Graydon Carter] [Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently - Charles Dudley Warner]
Discussion is based on readings from the book titled “The Collected What If – Eminent Historians Imagine what Might Have Been” by Robert Cowley.(published by Putnam – ISBN 0-399-15238-5) There are 45 scenarios in the book and we read and discuss one each month. So far 11 have been discussed. At each meeting the group picks a scenario for the following month. The readings are short, usually 20 to 30 pages. Sometimes supplemental reading is sent out by e-mail. Sometimes the discussion is supplemented by videos from the History Channel, BBC, PBS etc.
The book can be purchased used on Amazon for very reasonable cost. I also have copies I can sell at my cost or lend out. When we have finished the book, we will use other works in this field or create our own scenarios from history. Any ideas?
There are other books on alternative history which could eventually come into play. One is titled “The Years of Rice and Salt” by Kim Stanley Robinson a gifted science fiction writer. In this book a minor mutation occurs in the Bubonic plague bacteria as it spreads from Asia to Europe in the fourteenth century (1300’s) and rather than a third of Europe’s population being wiped out, essentially the entire European population along with its culture and religion are wiped from the face of the earth. Imagine a world where the history of Western Civilization came to an abrupt end after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the Renaissance. What would have ensued and what would the world be like today? Robinson attempts this with his imagination and his knowledge of real cultures and history.
Phillip & Helen Lynch, 831-426-1837
