SAWI-00 Stephen Ambrose - What If.nfo
General Information
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Title: What If?
Author: Stephen Ambrose
Read By: John Cunningham
Copyright: 1999
Audiobook Copyright: 1999
Genre: Speech
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Abridged: No
Original Media Information
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Media: CD
Number: 13
Condition: Good
File Information
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Number of MP3s: 83
Total Duration: 13:55:49
Total MP3 Size: 191.50
Parity Archive: No
Ripped With: iTunes v4.7.0.42
Encoded With: FhG
Encoded At: CBR 32 kbit/s 22050 Hz Mono
Normalize: MP3 Gain, 90.5dB
Noise Reduction: None
ID3 Tags: Set, v1.1, v2.3
Book Description
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Contents
CD01: The Peace of 1914: The World War that wasn't, Robert Cowley
CD02: How Hitler Could have won the war: the drive for the middle east,
John Keegan - Our Midway Disaster: Japan springs a trap, June 4, 1942,
Theodore F Cook
CD03: Our Midway Disaster: Japan springs a trap, June 4, 1942, Theodore
F Cook [cont] - D-Day Fails: Atomic alternatives in Europe, Stephen
Ambrose - Funeral in Berlin: The Cold War Turns Hot, David Clay Large---
CD04: Funeral in Berlin: The Cold War Turns Hot, David Clay Large [cont]
- China without tears: If Chaing hadn't gambled in 1946
CD05: The Repulse of the English fireships: the Spanish armada triumphs,
Geoffrey Parker - Unlikely victory: 13 ways the Americans could have
lost the Revolution, Geoffrey Parker
CD06: Unlikely victory: 13 ways the Americans could have lost the Revolution,
Geoffrey Parker [cont] - What the fog wrought: The revolution's Dunkirk,
David McCullough
CD07: Ruler of the world: Napoleon's missed opportunities, Alistair
Horne - If the lost order hadn't been lost: Robert E Lee Humbles the
Union, James M McPherson
CD08: If the lost order hadn't been lost: Robert E Lee Humbles the
Union, James M McPherson [cont] - A Confederate Cannae and other scenarios:
How
the Civil War might have turned out differently, Stephen W Sears
CD09: Infectious Alternatives: The plague that saved Jerusalem, William
H McNeill - No Glory that was Greece: The Persians win at Salamis,
Victor Davis Hanson
CD10: No Glory that was Greece: The Persians win at Salamis, Victor
Davis Hanson [cont] - Conquest Denied: Alexander the Great's premature
death, Josiah Ober
CD11: Furor Teutonicus: The Teutoburg, Lewis H Lapham - The Dark Ages
Made Lighter: The consequences of two defeats, Barry S Strauss
CD12: The Dark Ages Made Lighter: The consequences of two defeats,
Barry S Strauss [cont] - The Death that Saved Europe: the Mongols Turn
Back, Cecelia Holland - If only it had not been such a wet summer, Theodore
K Rabb
CD13: If only it had not been such a wet summer, Theodore K Rabb [cont]
- The Immolation of Hernan Cortes, Ross Hassig
Amazon.com
Counterfactuals--what-if scenarios--fueled countless bull sessions in
smoke-filled dorm rooms in the 1960s. What if Sitting Bull had had a
machine gun at Little Big Horn? What if Attila the Hun had had a time
machine? What if Columbus had landed in India after all? Some of those
dorm-room speculators grew up to be historians, and their generation
(along with a few younger and older scholars) makes a strong showing
in this anthology of essays, in which the what-ifs are substantially
more plausible. What if Hitler had not attacked Russia when he did?
He might have moved into the Middle East and secured the oil supplies
the Third Reich so badly needed, helping it retain its power in Europe.
What if D-Day had been a failure? The Soviet Union might have controlled
all of Europe. What if Sennacherib had pressed the siege of Jerusalem
in 701 B.C.? Then the nascent, monotheistic Jewish religion might never
have taken hold among the people of Judah--and the daughter religions
of Christianity and Islam would never have been born.
So suggest some of the many first-rate contributors to this collection,
which grew from a special issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military
History. One of them is classicist Josiah Ober, who suggests that if
Alexander the Great had died at the age of 21 instead of 32, Greece
would have been swallowed up by Persia and Rome, and the modern Western
world would have a much different sensibility--and probably little idea
of democratic government. Still other contributors are Stephen E. Ambrose,
Caleb Carr, John Keegan, David McCullough, and James McPherson, who
examine a range of scenarios populated by dozens of historical figures,
including Sir Walter Raleigh, Chiang Kai-shek, Robert E. Lee, Benito
Mussolini, and Themistocles. The result is a fascinating exercise in
historical speculation, one that emphasizes the importance of accident
and of roads not taken in the evolution of human societies across time.
Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
CounterfactualsAconsiderations of alternate outcomesAmake up one of
the main provinces of military history. This volume, for which an A&E
companion TV documentary is scheduled in November, incorporates two
dozen essays and a dozen sidebars on what might have happened by writers
of diverse specialties, including generalist Lewis Lapham, novelist
Cecelia Holland and historians John Keegan, David McCullough and Stephen
Ambrose. Readers willing to be open-minded can consider Europe's fate
had the Mongols continued their 13th-century course of conquest. They
can speculate on the death in battle of Hern n Cort?s and the consequences
of an Aztec Empire surviving to present times. Thanks to James McPherson,
they can read of a battle of Gettysburg fought in 1862 (instead of 1963)
and resulting in a Confederate victory, or the consequences of a Confederate
defeat at Chancellorsville courtesy of Steven Sears. Ambrose suggests
that Allied defeat on D-Day would have meant nuclear devastation for
Germany in the summer of 1945. Arthur Waldron presents a China, and
a world, that might have been far different had Chiang Kai-shek not
taken the risk of invading Manchuria in 1946. Consistently well drawn,
these scenarios open intellectual as well as imaginative doors for anyone
willing to walk through them.
From Library Journal
What if George Washington hadn't escaped from Long Island? What if Lee's
Special Order No. 191 hadn't been lost? How would history be different?
Cowley, founding editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History,
calls on historians like Stephen Ambrose and John Keegan to reconsider
history's little quirks.
Entertainment Weekly, September 17, 1999
Since chance, error, and the weather deserve as much credit as humans
for the mess known as history, its fair to ask historians for a retake.
What If? Imagine the narrowly missed possibilities of a Muslim Europe,
a Mongol Europe, a permanently Confederate South, a 20th century in
which names Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao mean nothing, or a triumphant
Nazi Reich or Japanese Empire. You'll have the vertigo-inducing sense
that everything, you and me included, could have been very, very different.---
From Booklist
The mysterious subtext of military history, counterfactual suppositions,
here parades in full regalia. Among the speculating drum majors are
the most popular contemporary names in the field (e.g., James McPherson
and John Keegan), but fame should be no prerequisite for delving into
the essays of all three dozen authors. They explore the trove of contingent
events that could have transformed the Western world into something
other than what it developed into. If not for Themistocles, the Athenian
admiral who galvanized the Greeks at Salamis, the seed of Western civilization
might never have germinated. An Islamic Europe might have evolved from
a different result of the Battle of Tours, and had not the Mongols'
Khan keeled over in 1242, everything to the Atlantic might have been
destroyed, foreclosing capitalism, the Renaissance, and the Reformation.
Nearer in time with better documentation, the revisions seem to hinge
on tiny details--like Robert E. Lee's famous "lost order" that actually
brought on the Battle of Antietam. Had Lee's courier been less careless,
could Lee have induced and won a Battle of Gettysburg in 1862? The speculative
scenario spun by historian James McPherson typifies these riveting excursions
into the unknowable. For the armchair general musing on the ramifications
of an Aztec victory at Tenochtitlan, Napoleon's at Waterloo, Japan's
at Midway, or Germany's at Normandy, editor Cowley has assembled a war
college faculty nonpareil. Gilbert Taylor
From Kirkus Reviews
Expanded from the tenth-anniversary issue of Military History Quarterly,
this anthology gathers an all-star cast of 34 historians to answer the
question ``what if?'' about a variety of events in world history that
could have gone differently. Among the gems of counterfactual history
(to use the currently trendy academic term) assembled by MHQ editor
Cowley are: Josiah Ober's speculation on the results of an even more
premature death for Alexander the Great (the ideals of the Greek city-state
lost to a greater Persian influence on world civilization, as well as
different lines of historical development for Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam); Thomas Fleming's outstanding essay on 13 ways the colonies
might have lost the American Revolution; Alastair Horne on Napoleon's
missed opportunities (including the speculation that a Europe unified
by Napoleon might have forestalled German unification and, by extension,
WWI and the rise of Hitler); and James McPherson's startling piece on
a lost Confederate order discovered by a Union officer that resulted
in the narrow Union victory at Antietam. (Had the South won there, evidence
suggests that both Britain and France would have openly supported and
even backed the Confederacy.) Best of all is Theodore Rabb's speculation
that if a heavy summer of rain hadn't kept the sultan of the Ottoman
empire from bringing cannon, his siege of Vienna would have succeeded,
in which case Martin Luther would have had a different life, Henry VIII
would have been permitted to divorce his Hapsburg wife, and Europe would
be a very different place. Other contributors include John Keegan, Stephen
Ambrose, David McCullough, and David Clay Large. A superb introduction
by Cowley prefaces each essay. Taken individually, all are small gems
of history; brought together in a single book, they offer an oustanding
overview of the fragile happenstances on which history turns. The book
of the year for any history lover.
Book Description
Historians and philosophers alike have pondered the crucial turning
points of history-events that forever altered the course of civilization,
and set the stage for the world in which we live today. In these essays,
some of the most respected minds of our time ask the question "What
If..."
George Washington had never made his miraculous escape from the British
on Long Island in the dawn of August 29, 1776?
A Confederate aide hadn't accidentally lost General Robert E. Lee's
plans for invading the North?
Alexander the Great had been slain in battle, instead of saved at the
last instant by a loyal bodyguard?
The Allied invasion on D-Day had failed?
The Mongols had succeeded in conquering Europe?
Both fascinating and frightening, What If? offers in-depth reflections
on the monumental events of the past, and amazing speculations as to
what our world might be like had things gone differently in that one
singular moment in time.
What If? includes contributions by:
Stephen E. Ambrose, Caleb Carr, James Chace, Theodore F. Cook, Jr.,
Robert Cowley, Thomas Fleming, David Fromkin, Ira D. Gruber, Victor
Davis Hanson, Ross Hassig, Cecilia Holland, Alistair Horne, John Keegan,
Lewis H. Lapham, David Clay Large, David Mccullough, William H. McNeill,
James M. Mcpherson, Ted Morgan, Williamson Murray, Josiah Ober, Robert
L. O'Connell, Geoffrey Parker, Peter Pierson, Barbara N. Porter, Theodore
K. Rabb, Elihu Rose, Stephen W. Sears, Dennis E. Showalter, Barry S.
Strauss, Arthur Waldron, Tom Wicker
About the Author
Robert Cowley is the founding editor of the award-winning MHQ: The Quarterly
Journal of Military History, whose tenth-anniversary issue served as
the inspiration for this book. He has held several senior positions
in book and magazine publishing.
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