Is Robert Conroy's 1901 a decent book? I know that he is hit and miss from past books I've bought 1862 was tolerable, 1920 was completely fantasy how a German victory saw Wilson scrap the bulk of the USN was too much to swallow.
1901
- Thread starter Virginia Liberal
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It's a dumb schlocky story reliant on a mangled understanding of pop-history where proto-Nazi Imperial Germany invades New York because we wouldn't sell them colonies and the British just twiddle their thumbs so Teddy Roosevelt has to get ex-confederates to lead the army and show the Krauts and Yankees how real men fight, and in the end the Germans are defeated in a pitched battle and so the Nazis take over in a coup and declare a Third Reich while plotting the genocide of Jews and Slavs and I'm sorry why is Britain still sitting on its ass doing fuck all?
raharris1973
Gone Fishin'
Agreed that it abounds with silliness and cardboard characterization, but why this expectation that Britain is on this gallant mission to take everybody's chestnuts out of the fire globally. It's a self-interest country, not Christopher Reeve playing Superman.
Because Imperial Germany acting like such an uncontrolled Stupid Evil mad dog is an existential threat to British interests.
Don't forget the rape sub plot and the Apache soldiers in Connecticut (though it might have been Long Island). As to whether it's a good read, I would say yes. It's not on Fatherland level good, but its not a bad read.
It's a fun read, not as good as the 1945s or Germanica, but way better than 1862 and the awfulness that was Liberty 1784. It has a little "America Fuck Yeah" like all his works, so keep that in mind
Sabre77
Banned
I got it as a gift years ago and I thought it was pretty enjoyable. It’s not at all realistic, but the Kaiser makes a pretty solid villain and you do feel sympathetic/invested in the protagonists(which isn’t always the case).
Sabre77
Banned
It’s been a while since I read it, but I’m pretty sure Britain does a lot to help the US— they supply the US with modern weaponry and intelligence about the movements of the German Navy for instance.
This is a situation where I would expect France to immediately jump Germany on some manufactured casus belli and for the UK to dogpile on with a flimsy excuse within a month. Germany successfully establishing a significant beachhead in America's most populous region after a successful naval invasion of its most developed port region is a nightmare scenario for both countries. Britain "supplying modern weaponry" and saying "oh by the way the German navy is here" is a bad joke.
The book is as plausible as "WI Hitler used German supertech to develop F-86s in 1939 and invaded America with Rhine river barges in an Operation MEGA-Sealion???".
Sabre77
Banned
France is still wrecking itself over the Dreyfus Affair in 1901. Britain wasn’t going to go to war without a continental power to do the bulk of the dying on land, especially not with the Second Boer War still ongoing(which, if I recall correctly, was the official reason the British gave to the US for not getting directly involved). Like I said before, it’s not realistic, but it’s still an enjoyable book
Dreyfus affair just became irrelevant. Germany sent a good chunk of their army to go galivant across another continent and dedicated their navy to support that.
Oh, and Russia hasn't been smacked around by Japan yet, so they still think they're tougher than they are. Hey, guess which neighbor of Russia just acted like a mad dog (likely alienating their few remaining allies), sent a significant amount of its military to run around doing an obviously suicidal naval invasion it cannot logistically support, and is sandwiched between Russia and a country that wants nothing more than pure vengeance against said neighbor of Russia?
The book's very premise makes it impossible for the war to happen, because it's such an insanely petty, Stupid Evil reason to go to war, and such a ridiculously logistically unsupportable invasion scheme that mostly relies on wishful thinking (and America being incompetent to the point of insanity), that no sane neighbor of Germany could possibly let this mad-dog nation exist intact, since it has proven to be an uncontrollable, insane threat to all civilized (read: white) nations.
Why should Britain do anything? I often hear, that Britain would intervene in such a conflict, but I don´t see why? The Royal Navy isn´t Americas mom. There were no allliance between both countrries and a couple of years earlier, both came near to war.
Because a powerful Europe-dominating country willing to attack a white country over declining to sell colonies which then launches a massive naval invasion into a major industrial power's most populous region is simultaneously an existential threat to British geopolitical interests and an incredibly vulnerable target. There is every reason for Britain to launch a major intervention in response to this insanity.
1901 was one of the first out and out AH novels I bought (had some collections of short stories before that), and I always liked it. At the time, I didn't realize just how unrealistic it was, but that didn't really lessen my enjoyment of it.
Yeah, his battles are all usually the same (cartoonishly evil German or Japanese villains launch massive overwhelming attack against 'Murica but Glorious 'Murica wins by grit and ingenuity and humiliates the straw enemy), but 1901's fight scenes were Kratman levels of bad.
There was a fair bit of British investment in US industries, a lot of cross pollination between upper class families and it turns out for most of 1901 there was a Royal tour happening in Canada (Prince George later George V & his wife). I guess it was to beef up colonial support for the Boer War & a reminder that even though Victoria was dead the monarchy endured. So I would say if a flotilla of German Navy ships packed with troop was spotted (it would be hard to muster that many troops and ships then sneak passed Norway, Sweden & Denmark into the North Sea with out someone telling the Admiralty) the Royal Navy who were not really involved in the South African conflict would be steaming after them.
Deleted member 96212
This. God I fucking hated the shit out of his writing for this. I read 1862, 1945, and some other dumb book where Himmler takes power in 1944 after Hitler gets killed. The American exceptionalism felt disturbingly masturbatory.
I honestly need to throw those books in the fire. I've put it off for too long.