Hello everyone! I'm the writer of "Dreams of Liberty: A Failure at Princeton," and I just want to start this post by saying that I am so honored that I was even considered for a Turtledove Award, let alone nominated. I've loved both reading and writing alternate history for about over four years by now, and to have my passion project be recognized by the community that has time and time again inspired and uplifted me throughout much of my recent life is an incredible thing. I also want to reiterate
@Lusitania's hope for your friends' and families' safety during the current situation going on.
So without further ado, what is Dreams of Liberty?
In its simplest terms, "Dreams of Liberty: A Failure at Princeton" is a timeline that explores what could have happened had the United States of America lost its war of independence after General George Washington is killed at the Battle of Princeton. But I think that very basic description doesn't accurately encapsulate what Dreams of Liberty truly is. This timeline, which has been over two years in the making, analyzes the modern history of an alternate world that is completely alien to us in nearly every sense of the word, be it politically, geographically, culturally, and even technologically.
Dreams of Liberty does not keep the focus solely on North America. In fact, the focus almost immediately shifts elsewhere to a Europe where the status quo is swaying on the edge of destruction. Without a fledgling American republic to the west to look to for ideological inspiration, the French Revolution instead takes a page from the history books of the Roman Republic to create a new and bizarre system of government that mixes classical republicanism, liberalism, populism, and even what we would call Marxism into an ideology, ironically named communism after the communes that governed liberalized French municipalities in this time period. These revolutionary sentiments truly turn the world upside down when an indebted Great Britain succumbs to a Jacobin-esque coup led by none other than Jeremy Bentham, who in this world is an authoritarian strongman with ambitions to conquer the feudal states of Europe in the name of the Plebeian Class.
Dreams of Liberty is a timeline with a global focus, with each chapter jumping from region to region. In one chapter, you'll be reading about Aaron Burr establishing a Dutch vassal republic in South Africa while in the next you'll be reading about a war scourging the entirety of South America that is fought predominantly in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. Despite this immense global focus, I'm a big sucker for the minute details, so you won't miss out on all the zany little tidbits that I think are essential to setting the mood for any alternate history timeline. Dreams of Liberty is full of these fun details, from 19th Century primaries, to Greek constitutional conventions, to pirates-turned-empresses, to speculation about what could have been had those Yankee rebel-rousers in the Columbian Uprising won their war of secession back in the 1770s. Simply put, regardless of what kind of alternate history you enjoy, Dreams of Liberty has something for you.
So to wrap things up, "Dreams of Liberty: A Failure at Princeton" is a timeline with a focus on the history of a world where an aggressively oligarchic British Republic rules the Old World, a New Granadan monarchy with a first for empire building rules the New World, and a Victorian Germanic Empire rules the waves of the 19th Century. If any of this sounds interesting to you, please consider taking a look at "Dreams of Liberty: A Failure at Princeton."