The World’s Foremost Historians Imagine What Might Have Been: What If?

List of illustrationsIntroduction by Robert CowleyInfectious Alternatives – William H. McNeilThe Plague that Saved Jerusalem, 701 B.C.A Good Night's Sleep Can Do Wonders – Barbara N. PorterNo Glory That Was Greece – Victor Davis HansonThe Persians Win at Salamis, 480 B.C.Conquest Denied – Josiah OberThe Premature Death of Alexander the GreatFuror Teutonicus – The TeutoburgForest, A.D. 9 – Lewis H. LaphamThe Dark Ages Made Lighter – Barry S. StraussThe Consequences of Two DefeatsThe Death That Saved Europe – Cecelia HollandThe Mongols Turn Back, 1242If Only It Had Not Been Such a Wet Summer – Theodore K. RabbThe Critical Decade of the 1520sIf the Holy League Hadn't Dithered – Peter PiersonThe Immolation of Hernán Cortés – Ross HassigTenochtitlán, June 30, 1521The Repulse of the English Fireships – Geoffrey ParkerThe Spanish Armada Triumphs, August 8, 1588Unlikely Victory – Thomas FlemingThirteen Ways the Americans Could Have Lost the RevolutionGeorge Washington's Gamble – Ira D. GruberWhat the Fog Wrought – David McCulloughThe Revolution's Dunkirk, August 29, 1776Ruler of the World – Alistair HorneNapoleon's Missed OpportunitiesNapoleon Wins at Waterloo – Caleb CarrIf the Lost Order Hadn't Been Lost – James M. McPhersonRobert E. Lee Humbles the Union, 1862A Confederate Cannae and Other Scenarios – Stephen W. SearsHow the Civil War Might Have Turned Out DifferentlyVietnam in America, 1865 – Tom WickerThe What Ifs of 1914 – Robert CowleyThe World War That Should Have Never BeenBismarck's Empire: Stillborn – James ChaceThanks, But No Cigar – David Clay LargeThe Armistice of Desperation – Dennis E. ShowalterHow Hitler Could Have Won the War – John KeeganThe Drive for the Middle East, 1941What a Taxi Driver Wrought – Williamson MurrayTriumph of the Dictators – David FromkinOur Midway Disaster – Theodore F. Cook, Jr.Japan Springs a Trap, June 4, 1942The Case of the Missing Carriers – Elihu RoseD Day Fails – Stephen A. AmbroseAtomic Alternatives in EuropeThe Soviet Invasion of Japan – Robert CowleyFuneral in Berlin – David Clay LargeThe Cold War Turns HotChina Without Tears – Arthur WaldronIf Chiang Kai-shek Hadn't Gambled in 1946A Quagmire Avoided? – Ted MorganThe End – Robert L. O'Connell