“The Conflict’s Most Intriguing Possibilities”

I knew our new What If book would be popular, but Savas Beatie World Headquarters tells me orders have been pouring in online this past week. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many exclamation points from Ted Savas in a seven-day period: !!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week, we offered an open-the-box preview of The Great “What Ifs” of the American Civil War: Historians Tackle the Conflict’s Most Intriguing Possibilities. When we did, we promised we’d share with you the full line-up of What Ifs we’ve included in this book along with the historians who’ve tackled them. Well, wait no longer:

From our table of contents:

Foreword: “Paths Not Taken: Thoughts of an Alternate Historian” by Peter G. Tsouras

Introduction by Chris Mackowski

Chapter One: “‘Persistently Misunderstood’: The What-Ifs of Shiloh” by Timothy B. Smith

Chapter Two: “The What Ifs of Antietam” by Kevin Pawlak

Chapter Three: “What If Great Britain Had Intervened in the American Civil War?” by Dwight Hughes

Chapter Four: “What If Someone Else Had Been Offered Command of the Army of the Potomac?” by Frank Jastrzembski

Chapter Five: “What if Stonewall Jackson Had Not Been Shot?” by Kristopher D. White

Chapter Six: “To Go Around to the Right? Longstreet at Gettysburg” by Dan Welch

Chapter Seven: “What if Jefferson Davis Hadn’t Been So Loyal to Braxton Bragg?” by Cecily Nelson Zander

Chapter Eight: “What if Robert E. Lee Had Struck a Blow at the North Anna River?” by Chris Mackowski

Chapter Nine: “‘Rally the loyal men of Missouri’: What If the 1864 Missouri Expedition Had Been Successful?” by Kristen Trout

Chapter Ten: “‘A New Endorsement of Abraham Lincoln’”: Could Lincoln Have Won Reelection Without Sherman’s and Sheridan’s Successes?” by Jonathan A. Noyalas

Chapter Eleven: “Why Didn’t General Robert E. Lee Wage a Guerrilla War with his Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865?” by Barton A. Myers

Chapter Twelve: “‘What if Lincoln Lived? The Civil War’s Perennial Counterfactual Question” by Brian Matthew Jordan and Evan C. Rothera

The book also includes suggested readings on each of these topics for anyone who wants to read more.

Don’t see your favorite “What If” listed here? Well then, perhaps you’ll be as intrigued as I am by the very last page in the book: “What if . . . there was a volume two?”



6 Responses to “The Conflict’s Most Intriguing Possibilities”

  1. I just got the notification from Amazon that this should arrive the week of my birthday, and I couldn’t be more excited!

  2. I ordered mine and am now waiting impatiently! Perhaps Vol 2 will take up the counterfactual response to “What if Stonewall had lived” which is, “What if Joe Johnston had NOT been wounded at Seven Pines?

    1. Now that’s an interesting possibility for those of us who are obsessed with that campaign. Supersedes “What if Longstreet and Huger hadn’t turned the crossing into a debate forum?”

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