Recent content by drewmcgunn

@Ulyanovsk, thanks for the info regarding Johnson's book.

Market gluts certainly happened. We see that in the failure of the Confederacy's King Cotton policy of withholding cotton from European markets in 1861, when cotton was stockpiled in the UK. But that was mostly a one-off. Cotton prices fluctuated widely over the 25 years prior the US Civil War...

I've been kicking around an idea about a story that exploits the difference in cotton prices between New Orleans cotton prices and the price of cotton in Manchester, England during the antebellum period. What I've found has surprised me a bit - enough that I wanted to post what I've found here...

Just doing a bit of back-of-the-napkin math, using the parameters you've given us, the Electoral college looks like this: Douglas - 95 Lincoln - 84 Bell - 63 Breckenridge - 20 First thing to keep in mind is that IOTL Lincoln only beat Douglas in the popular vote by a margin of 300,000 votes...

I think for a timeline like this to work, an earlier POD would work better. The problem with San Jacinto is that if everything else remains unchanged, the Mexicans have a precarious supply situation. They are dependant on sea lanes for their supplies, but by San Jacinto, the nascent Texas Navy...

This gets kicked around every few months. One thing folks tend to forget about was that Texas was a long way from Mexico City and it was, before Anglo-European immigration, very sparsely populated. When Santa Anna arrived at San Antonio on February 23, 1836, he was operating at the end of a very...

IIRC, what Foxworthy said is that being a redneck is a "glorious lack of sophistication." But you're point is valid. I know plenty of people with no class of all races and ethnicities and cultures.

I agree with what others have said, you need to find a reason for Texas to remain that works very heavily against the deep South interests in play in 1860. One of the more interesting things to look at is an 1860 census from Texas. One of the fields that people provided information on was their...

Thanks for the link. Best of luck.

Interesting topic. Over the years, broadly speaking, I've identified two types of alternative history. The first type is where alternate history is the backdrop of the story, like the Yiddish Policeman's Union. I'd argue that Man in the High Castle fits this as well. I'd also put Fatherland...

I saw that when I was researching my own timeline on an Independent Texas. I'm not convinced he didn't rent the slaves, which wasn't uncommon at that time. When I looked him up in the 1820 and 1830 US census, I don't believe his household held slaves at either point.

I don't think it's possible to create something entirely decentralized. Even most Protestant denominations tend towards some form of central authority; after all, nature abhors a vacuum. But, if one were to look at the early church, tradition says that from the very beginning of the church...

Subscribed. I'm not sure I can come close to offering the quality of feedback you provided in my timeline, but I'll definitely follow your effort.

My sixth and final book in the Lone Star Reloaded series was released on Amazon today. Here's the blurb: Stranded in the past in 1836, Will Travers woke up in the body of William Barret Travis, commander of the doomed Alamo command, and did what any self-respecting Texan would do when handed...

Seems an interesting start. Curious to see where you take it next.