The best AH you've never seen...

[MacCaulay]

I was reading a compilation of alt-hist short stories I found in my car recently, and I came to a conclusion. There were a lot of really interesting personalities, and places throughout history (the 20th Century being the crux of this page) that I have seen little or no AH on. Like...

Billy Mitchell (I want to see him not get court-martialed)

Leonard Wood (He always got overshadowed by TR)

John Pershing (I suppose American Empire just showed me you could do it)

Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (He just screams for a pulpy adventure story
where he has adventures in the Congo as a hero in the First World War)

Michael Collins (Like no one ever wanted HIM to survive and possibly lead Irish forces into battle independently in World War II? I know they weren't in it in OTL, but I might as well throw it out there.)

Mackenzie King

Baron von Richtoven

John Glenn

as far as places go...

Dieppe
Gallipoli
Orbit
The Moon
North Africa
Palestine/Israel

I just wanted to get that off my chest. I know it's not really about any particular POD or story, but I know there's other people out there with these ideas in the backs of their minds. We've all thought up ideas that would be great if we could just hand them to someone else.

Has anyone been aching for AH you've never seen?

 

[B_Munro]

I would like to see a really good "Soviet Union survives" or even "Communism wins" AH (and by "good" I mean plausible, not cold war fantasy of the Red Dawn-Not This August-I Martha Adams-etc. variety)

Some more well done "alternate physics" AH in the Richard Garfinkle vein.

"Napoleon does better" or "French revolution does better", set in the current day in a world as different as one would realistically expect.

More generally, some more detailed world building in the tradition of Stirling, Silverberg, or Louvish. No vaguely sketched in worlds providing a poorly seen backdrop to a mystery or action story which could as easily be set OTL with only minor changes.

Bruce

 

[Straha]

More generally, some more detailed world building in the tradition of Stirling, Silverberg, or Louvish. No vaguely sketched in worlds providing a poorly seen backdrop to a mystery or action story which could as easily be set OTL with only minor changes.
Bruce

I'm working on one of those...

 

[Ofaloaf]

I want to see a "More advanced Africa" AH. Not one where Africans take over Europe, mind you, but one where they have sufficient force by the 15th century to 'discourage' Portuguese and Spanish enslavement of native Africans. One where these are African nations with something socially and technologically on par with at least the minor European powers. One where, say, Nigeria could go toe-to-toe with Poland or Austria or Denmark and win, or least have a draw.

 

[tiggerfan]

How about President Hiram Johnson coming to power at the start of WW1 ?

TR/Johnson win in 1912, then TR dies.

 

[David bar Elias]

An ATL where the Ford-Edison electric car of 1914 is succesfully tested, leading to a very different world stage in the long term (I've considered trying a TL like that)....

 

[Kabraloth]

Each and every Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck timeline.

Because "Erich" sounds better than his real second prename (which is Emil).

 

[Darkest]

Communism wins, huh? I'm working on a deStalinized version of that in my Grippenberg timeline, which I hope to get to a point where I can actually use it in a novel I am writing (seriously).

 

[Akiyama]

I'd like to see an AH in which the Reformation leads to *really* radical religious movements that succesfully destroy both the Catholic Church and the feudal system - no more priests, no more monarchs, no more aristocrats!

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Here Are A Few...

-One wherein the Treaty of Bandung and/or Non-Alignment Movement of the 1950s is able to become more than a "talking space" for Third World nations, and becomes a powerful political bloc...

-One wherein the European (esp. British, French, Belgian, et al.) military intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa turns into a long drawn out engagement, complete with anti-war protests, draft riots, and counterculture, like America's involvement in Vietnam...

-A storyline wherein the Native American nations receive recognition as independent states by the United Nations in the 1970s...

 

[David bar Elias]

An ATL with a powerful modern India that's close to the west.....or a detailed ATL involving President Gore...or an ATL where Huey Long wins the Louisiana governor's race in 1924 and later becomes a non-fascistic president........

 

[Michael B]

-A storyline wherein the Native American nations receive recognition as independent states by the United Nations in the 1970s...

You would have to get round the American veto on that plus probably the British one too.

On the other hand once they are recognised, it sets a precedent and other nations like the Catalans, Scots, Zulus and some of the Indian kingdoms could jump on the bandwagon. The criteria could be that you were a recognised state by at least one founder member of the UN. To prove this, you would require at least one treaty between you and said member. That might not cover the Catalans but it would cover the other nations listed.

 

[Thande]

I'd like to see an AH in which the Reformation leads to *really* radical religious movements that succesfully destroy both the Catholic Church and the feudal system - no more priests, no more monarchs, no more aristocrats!

Are you into dystopias or something?


I too would like to see a well-written Napoleonic victory world.

 

[MerryPrankster]

In my Afrikaner TL, I have something like the Directory remain in power in France, with a *Napoleon as their Great Captain (butterflies mean he's a bit less skilled and less ambitious than our Napoleon, but he's still quite dangerous to the Revolution's enemies).

 

[HelloLegend]

an AH where there are more Chinese in America

the Chinese exclusion act of the late 1880s kept a lot of Chinese immigrants out of coming to America... what if that didn't happen. That's a TL I would like to see.

 

[Straha]

A TL where thE US from the revolution decides to keep out brits, in the 1830s bans irish/scandanavians and in the 1840s bans germans. Basically a US that's more culturally laigned with sotuh europe, latin america and east asia.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

A TL where thE US from the revolution decides to keep out brits, in the 1830s bans irish/scandanavians and in the 1840s bans germans. Basically a US that's more culturally laigned with sotuh europe, latin america and east asia.

You've suggested that before. And it's been pointed out before that it's beyond implausible.

 

[Straha]

I don't see it as impossible. Just have thE US a bit more angry at britain psot revolution woudl be enoguih to kic it off... then have Napoleon win and set up puppet states in continental europe. The fear of radicalism does all the rest for me.

 

[Superdude]

Thats still really implausible....

 

[Straha]

I didn't say it was likely.. just possible. I'm more concerned if a POD is possible than if its likely/probable.