Rhetoric and Allohistory: Cultural Anxiety and lmagining History as it

Wasn't
The cutura fbers of a partcuar breed of specuatve hndsght commony
known as "aternatve hstory" have not been much examned by rhetorca
schoars. Counterfactua remagnng of the past - askng ourseves "what f thngs
had happened dfferenty?" - coud be dsmssed as an de curosty, a paror game
that merey entertans, or an ndugence of nostagc mpuses. On the other hand
one coud turn to the meteorc popuarty of the aternatve hstory genre and ask
what cutura factors ead to or have been ead from t. What s t about Western
cuture (for the vast ma|orty of aternatve hstory comes from Western ocaes; one
woud be hard-pressed to fnd a work of aternatve hstory orgnatng outsde of a
European or Amercan context) that nspres questons ke "What f Hter had won
the Second Word War?"; "What f the South had won the Amercan Cv War?";
"What f the fgure of |esus never emerged or never became sgnfcant?" I have not
chosen these three exampes arbtrary; these are by far the most commony
returned to questons of aternatve hstory fcton.
In ths paper I make the argument that aternatve hstory utmatey
functons as an expresson and refecton of wdespread, recurrng cutura anxetes
over natona, regous, and cutura dentty. To support ths pont, I gve accounts
of the three exampes sted above (Hter wns WWII; the South wns the Amercan
Cv War; |esus never becomes hstorcay sgnfcant) and expore the anxetes
each of these scenaros makes manfest. Whe there are a pethora of works
engagng each of these scenaros, I have narrowed my focus sgnfcanty to nform
ths paper. For the Hter scenaro - by far the most frequenty nvoked
counterfactua tae- I use Gavre Rosenfeds text The World Hitler Never Made as a
1
prmary supportng text and reference pont. For a dscusson of the South wnnng
the Cv War, I turn to the popuar fcton of Harry Turtedove, who has wrtten
dozens of noves on the sub|ect. In partcuar I rey on Turtedoves 1997 nove How
Few Remain. For a unque verson of the aternate |esus story, I anayze Mchae
Moorcocks 8ehold the Man, n whch the Chrst story unfods n ways such that we
n the present know exacty what we know now, but the secret hstory s that |esus
sgnfcance was the resut of the actons of a tme traveer. My goa, through these
three scenaros, s to both revea and ustrate the centra features of the
aternatve hstory genre whe exporng how ts pubc draw (both n terms of the
producton of the texts themseves and n ther mass consumpton) can be
expaned n terms of broader, deep-seated cutura anxetes. As a ater subset of
the paper, I w aso expore what I ca "aohstorca anachronsm" - the fctona
trope of takng ma|or hstorca fgures or scenaros from ther orgna settngs nto
"out-of-tme" settngs whch, usuay, resde n the future. One step further removed
s what I ca "extended aohstorca auson," whch refers to the use of cear
representatons of hstorca fgures transposed nto atogether new characters
desgned to ft a fctona pot. The exampe I w use here n deta s the character
of Londo Moar from the scence fcton teevson seres 8abylon 5, who s ceary
meant as a representaton of a future (and aen) Napoeon Bonaparte though the
connecton s never expcty made.
Before approachng these scenaros n any depth, I fee a more adequate
descrpton and defnton of the boundares of aternate hstory as a genre s
requred. In the foowng secton, I dfferentate aternate hstory from ts reatvey
cose anaogue "hstorca fcton" by defnng common tropes that work to estabsh
the basc parameters of the underyng premses of aternatve hstory.
2
Part l: Allohistory as an Object of Study
Gven the mons of peope who are exposed to hstorca fms,
teevson broadcasts, and noves, t s hghy key that mass-market
hstorca narratves are shapng popuar hstorca awareness to a
much greater extent than the hstores produced by professona
hstorans. Whether n the form of bestseng noves, feature fms, or
prme-tme teevson programs, they have reached untod mons of
readers and vewers. Anayzng ther broader messages, together wth
ther recepton, provdes an exceent means of extendng our study of
memory beyond the more mted ream of hgh cuture and aows us
to produce a more representatve portrat of the vews of socety at
arge.
-Gavre Rosenfed, The World Hitler Never Made
1
Aternatve hstory, or aohstory, shoud be dstngushed from a mdy
reated genre: hstorca fcton. Hstorca fcton typcay attempts to dramatze or
sensatonaze aspects of true hstory so as to convert them nto a dgestbe
entertanment format. An exampe of such fcton woud be the recent Tom Cruse
fm Valkyrie, whch sensatonazes the rea hstory of a pot to assassnate Hter so
as to fuf the requrements of a Hoywood "bockbuster." Whe the contents of the
fm ceary dffer from the reaty of the Vakyre assassnaton pot, t s a work of
hstorca fcton rather than aternatve hstory. Defnng where precsey to pace a
brght ne between the two genres may not be possbe (as wth any genre there
are key many exampes whch st upon ths ne and coud be easy and accuratey
descrbed as ether), but n genera the "aohstory" genre can be dentfed by four
1
RosenIeld, Gavriel D. The World Hitler Never Made. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 14-15.
3
tropes whch recur n the ma|orty of aohstorca works.
Psychoogsts have noted that most human bengs tend to see the future as
more contngent and uncertan than the past.
2
Ths tendency s commony known as
the "hndsght bas." Tetock, Lebow, and Parker note that the hndsght bas s due
to the recognton that "once we know what has happened, t s dffcut to reca
how unsure we used to be about the future."
3
For the aohstoran, however, the
hndsght bas s reversed. Ths s the frst of the tropes defnng the aohstorca
genre: reversa of the hndsght bas. Contrary to the psychoogsts argument,
hstoran E.H. Carr wrtes aganst the contemporary trend toward aohstorca
specuaton, wrtng "The troube about contemporary hstory s that peope
remember the tme when a the optons were st open, and fnd t dffcut to adopt
the atttude of the hstoran for whom they have been cosed by the fait accompli."
4
Wrters and consumers of aternatve fcton recognze that hstory could have
happened differently, but, for some happenstance, dd not.
Second, aternatve hstores commony operate under a "pont of
dvergence" trope. Gavre Rosenfed consders ths the prmary dfference between
hstorca fcton and aohstory:
"What nks such anaytca and fctona aternate hstores s ther
exporaton of how the ateraton of some varabe n the hstorca
record woud have changed the overa course of hstorca events. The
ncuson of ths eement - often caed a pont of dvergence - s what
dstngushes aternate hstory from other reated genre, such as
2
Tetlock, Philip, Richard Lebow, and GeoIIrey Parker. 'Unmaking the Middle Kingdom, in Unmaking the West.
'What-If?` Scenarios That Rewrite World Historv. Edited by Philip Tetlock, Richard Lebow, and GeoIIrey Parker.
Ann Arbor: University oI Michigan Press, 2006, 3
3
Tetlock, Lebow, and Parker, 'Unmaking the Middle Kingdom, 3.
4
Cited in Ferguson, Niall. 'Virtual History: Towards a chaotic` theory oI the past, in Jirtual Historv. Edited by
Niall Ferguson. New York: Basic Books, 1999 (1997), 54.
4
hstorca fcton. Aternate hstores are essentay defned by an
estrangng rather than a mmetc reatonshp to hstorca reaty."
5
In other words, works of aternatve hstory tend to make expct a pont of
dvergence from "true" hstorca records. For exampe, one coud cam "If Brtan
had surrendered after the Batte of Brtan n 1940, the Nazs woud have eventuay
won Word War II." The pont of dvergence from hstorca record s made cear.
Foowng from ths second trope s the thrd, whch s the "mnma-rewrte
rue." The mnma-rewrte rue suggests that works of aternatve hstory shoud
favor "causes that requre tte tamperng wth the actua hstorca record."
6
Ths
trope foows that ratonae that, despte the specuatve nature of aohstorca
works, they shoud strve nonetheess for pausbty. Thus, aternatve hstores
become more pausbe the smaer or more ncdenta the devance from actua
hstory. Aternatve hstores reyng on a compex seres of devatons tend toward
the ream of the fantastc rather than the aohstorca, and ose ther anchor to
reaty.
At the opposte border of the mnma-rewrte standard es the need to avod
the "Ceopatras nose" faacy. The argument, frst made by Base Pasca, s that
Ceopatras nose s responsbe for the fa of Rome: "thus Anthonys (sc) passon
for her proboscs determnes the fate of Rome."
7
Ferguson notes that ths s, of
course, a faacous argument: "Now, whe there s no ogca reason whe trva
thngs shoud not have momentous consequences, t s mportant to beware of the
reductve nference that therefore a trva thng s the cause of a great event."
8
Thus, despte the entertanment vaue (and the entertanment imperative of the
5
RosenIeld, The World Hitler Never Made, 4-5.
6
Tetlock, Lebow, and Parker, 'Unmaking the Middle Kingdom, 10.
7
Ferguson, 12-13.
8
Ferguson, 12.
5
aternatve hstory market) of scenaros ke Pascas account of the "probscuous"
affar that ed to the fa of Rome, the mnma-rewrte rue must be hed n daectc
opposton to a certan nasa faacy. In other words, one can fa to meet the
pausbty standard by makng too reductve a cam as we.
Fnay, a fourth trope s dentfed by Benedetto Croce. Croce fas nto the
E.P. Thompson camp of professona hstorans who staunchy oppose
"counterfactua fcton," and who see aohstory as "Ceschichtswissenschlopff,
unhstorca sht."
9
Croce argues, and I beeve rghty so, that aohstory constructs
an arbtrary dstncton between types of hstorca facts. Croce wrtes:
"What s forbdden s. the ant-hstorca and ogca f. Such an f
arbtrary dvdes the course of hstory nto necessary facts and
accdenta facts. Under the sgn of ths f, one fact n a narratve s
graded as necessary and another one as accdenta, and the second s
mentay emnated n order to espy how the frst woud have
deveoped aong ts own nes f t had not been dsturbed by the
second."
10
In short, Croce argues that a centra feature of aohstores s the tendency to fnd a
hstorca moment whch determnstcay must have been as t was, and then ater
a secondary moment or seres of secondary moments so as to aow the rppe of
the frst moment to contnue. Orson Scott Cards Pastwatch s a cear exampe of an
aohstory wth ths ncdenta mentaty. In Pastwatch, Coumbuss dscovery of
Amerca s the secondary, accdenta (therefore contngent) moment n hstory
whch nterrupts the hstorcay necessary (therefore unchangeabe) tra|ectory of
the Aztec Empre, whch, n the counterfactua tae, woud have ed toward the
9
Thompson, E.P. Cited in Ferguson, 5.
10
Croce, Benedetto, 'Necessity` in History, in Philosophv, Poetrv, Historv. An Anthologv of Essavs. Translated by
Cecil Sprigge. 1966. Cited in Ferguson, 6.
6
utmate unfcaton of Centra Amerca and the deveopment of ts own nava
exporers. In counterfactua Hter taes, the war tsef s often the mmovabe
hstorca ob|ect, whe specfc battes or smaer crcumstances wthn the war are
those deemed contngent and changeabe. By Croces account, these decsons to
prvege some hstorca moments over others are made argey arbtrary and for
the sake of "fancy."
Thus, works of hstorca fcton ke Cruses Valkyrie are dstnct from
aohstorca works, whch take these four tropes as ther fundamenta narratve
devces. The more-or-ess strct reance on these tropes s the eementa feature of
aohstory whch make crtcs ke Croce and Thompson oppose the genre as
essentay devod of nteectua vaue. Whether one comes to that evauatve
concuson or not, the fact remans that the genre has become a ma|or force
operatng wthn the popuar magnary. An onne archve of aternatve hstory
records 2900 noves, short stores, and essays pubshed n the genre.
11
The hstory
of the genre extends back to Herodotus, who expored the possbty of the Persans
defeatng the Greeks at Marathon n 490 B.C.E.
12
It re-emerged n the nneteenth
century wth Lous-Napoeon Geoffroy-Chateaus Napoleon et la conquete du monde
J8J2-J832 (pubshed 1836) and Chares Renouvers Uchronie (pubshed 1876),
and t has remaned a manstay of the specuatve apparatus for western fcton
snce.
13
Regardess of any gven works hstorca pausbty or academc vaue, we
shoud consder the cutura sgnfcance that the genre not ony exsts, but s
thrvng. Those who dsmss the genre outrght for ts "fancy" mss the pont:
mons of peope consume works of aternatve hstory, and they do so for some
11
Schmunk, Robert. Uchronia. The Alternative Historv List. 1991-2009. Last accessed online January 19, 2009 at
http://www.uchronia.net/
12
RosenIeld, The World Hitler Never Made, 5.
13
RosenIeld, The World Hitler Never Made, 5
7
reason. Even f that reason s sometmes or often ony entertanment, t s worth
nvestgatng why these stores are entertanng. My goa n the remander of ths
paper s to expore what reasons there are for the consumpton of aohstory by
probng what cutura expressons emerge from the works themseves.
Part ll: Three Scenarios
In ths secton I engage three common aohstorca narratves, usng them to
expore questons of cutura anxety n each case. Every aohstorca narratve s
ostensby about a fctona past, but n neary a cases the detas of these
aternatve hstores express, expore, or expuse the anxetes of a more
contemporary perod (.e., the perod n whch the story s wrtten) about a
contngent past moment.
5cenario One: Hitler Wins World War ll
By far the most common aohstorca settng nvoves aternate versons of
the end of Word War II, and of those the most frequent twst s one n whch Hter
wns the war.
14
Partcuary notabe among these stores (for ts popuarty) s Robert
Harrss Fatherland, whch essentay s a detectve story based n 1964 Bern
around Hters 75
th
brthday. The nove was eventuay made nto an HBO
mnseres. Rosenfed notes that there s a dstnct morastc trend from eary
aternatve Hter vctory narratves to more contemporary ones. Rosenfed wrtes:
The orgna functon of aohstorca accounts of a Naz wartme vctory
was to convnce Amercan readers to support Amercan nterventon n
the Second Word War. Noves such as Hendrk Wem van Loons
lnvasion (1940), Fred Ahoffs Lightning in the Night (1940), and
Maron Whtes lf We 5hould Fail (1942), as we as sc-f short stores
14
RosenIeld, Gavriel D. 'Why Do We Ask What II?` ReIlections on the Function oI Alternate History, Historv
and Theorv 41:4 (2002), 94.
8
such as Afred Besters "The Probabe Man" (1941), renforced the
sentment that Amerca needed to defeat the Nazs by pro|ectng beak
accounts of the consequences of fang to do so. By depctng Naz
Germany as a ruthess enemy that raned bombs upon such Amercan
ctes as Rochester, Ceveand, and Indanapos, by portrayng the
Nazs as carryng out vcous war crmes aganst cvans n a-
Amercan towns ke Saem, Massachusetts, and by envsonng the
dystopan nature of a Naz-rued word far nto the future, these works
ceary underscored Nazsms ev and reaffrmed the necessty of
defeatng Hter before he coud emerge vctorous.
15
For works of ths eary perod, there was a cear exgency for ths knd of
narratve; there was a wdespread anxety over the growng nfuence and mtary
mght of German Nazsm, and ony taes that refected an uncompcated ev upon
Nazsm coud push popuar opnon towards an Amercan nterventon. Ths anxety
s key unsurprsng, and the morastc tone of the narratves s untroubed and
straghtforward. More nterestng and remarkabe s how ths tone changed n
aohstorca narratves n the years after Nazsm was aready sody defeated.
Aohstorca Word War II stores experenced a resurgence durng the ate 1950s
and eary 1960s argey as a resut of the rse of neo-Nazsm n West Germany and
the we pubczed tras of Naz war crmnas ke Adof Echmann.
16
Rosenfed
notes that whe the morastc magery of Nazsm as supreme ev remans
unchanged durng ths perod, wthn the narratve accounts ths tone no onger
served as a ca to arms (whch t coud have easy been, gven the standoff wth
Sovet Russa) but as a "ddactc functon of preservng the Germans crmes n
15
RosenIeld, 'Why Do We Ask What II?`, 95.
16
RosenIeld, 'Why Do We Ask What II?`, 96.
9
memory and of trumphastcay vndcatng Amercas hstorc decson to
ntervene aganst them."
17
By the 1970s, however, the tone had sgnfcanty
changed from an expresson of the "nghtmare" of a Naz-rued word nto a fantasy
of normazaton, wheren Naz rue was not sgnfcanty better or worse than the
word as t was. Rosenfed attrbutes ths shft to the budng anxety of Amercans
over ther perceved natona decne.
18
Amerca coud no onger egtmatey seen as
a force of unwaverng |ustce n the word n the wake of the Vetnam war, the Cv
Rghts strugges of the 1960s, the Watergate scanda, and the escaaton of the Cod
War. Stores of ths perod wavered n terms of "how" to be dssatsfed wth hstory
as t actuay unfoded, but the trend of natona sef-conscousness and pessmstc
sef-crtque was neary unversa. Many stores emergng from both the potca
rght and the eft came to the concuson that Amercan neutraty n Word War II
woud have ed to a more moderate post-war Nazsm and a defeat of Sovet
communsm.
19
The atttudna shft from the counterfactua stores of the war perod
and eary post-war perod s ceary ndcatve of the mpact of contemporary
cutura anxetes over how the past shoud be remembered n terms of the present.
Of a aohstorca scenaros, the Word War II Naz-vctory provdes the best
evdence that aohstory utmatey refects the shftng cutura anxetes of the
present.
Another queston remans, however. What shoud we make of the fact that
the vast ma|orty of aternatve Word War II stores have been wrtten n the Unted
States and Brtan? Rosenfed notes that eghty percent of Naz aohstores have
been produced n these two natons, though other accounts aso exst across
17
RosenIeld, 'Why Do We Ask What II?`, 96.
18
RosenIeld, 'Why Do We Ask What II?`, 97.
19
See, Ior example: John Lukacs, 'What iI Hitler Had Won the Second World War? in The Peoples Almanac, =2,
ed. David Wallechinsky. New York: Morrow, 1978, 396-398; Brad Linaweaver`s Moon of Ice, and Bruce M.
Russett`s No Clear and Present Danger. A Skeptical Jiew of the U.S. Entrv into World War II.
10
Europe, North and South Amerca, and Asa.
20
The most obvous theory s that
because Brtan and the Unted States were the two vctors n the war who dd not
sustan the same bruta devastaton of ctes, popuaton, and andscape as dd the
other two ma|or vctors (France and Russa), revstng the war as a form of
entertanment has been possbe. The reaty that aternatve hstory prmary
thrves as a form of pop cutura entertanment rather than serous hstorca nqury
provdes a greater exgency for producton wthn states that have "been abe to
en|oy the uxury of embracng such a payfu reatonshp to the past."
21
What ths
anayss aso suggests s that, whe some Naz aohstores have been somber n
tone, ths somberness s to be understood as prmary a refecton of exstng
cutura anxetes over the present rather than an nterrupton of the tones of
trumph surroundng the Aed vctory over the Nazs. In short, when Word War II
aohstores are soberng, t s because the confcts of the present demand sobrety.
5cenario Two: The 5outh Wins the Civil War
Aohstores of an aternatve Cv War n whch the South emerges the vctor
are remarkabe n a cutura sense because of the southern natonast vaues they
usuay refect. There can be no doubt that n many rura areas of the South,
confederate regret and southern natonasm are st fet strongy. Southern
separatst potca movements are, even now, a contnung reaty wthn the
southern Unted States.
22
Wth that sad, t s not my ntent here to gve an account
of contemporary southern natonasm beyond what can be nferred from
aohstorca fcton. In bref, when consderng the Cv War, contemporary
20
RosenIeld, The World Hitler Never Made, 15.
21
RosenIeld, The World Hitler Never Made, 15.
22
For examples, see The League oI the South, the Southern Party, the Southern Nationalist Movement, The
American Secession Project, or any number oI dozens oI other contemporary secessionist movements. A number oI
textual examples exist as well. For example, R. Gordon Thorton`s The Southern Nation. The New Rise of the Old
South.
11
southern natonasts seem to mosty assocate three affectve states wth t:
tragedy, regret, and gory. I grant that these undertones perhaps permeate the
wder cuture of Cv War enthusasts n genera, but the group I am most nterested
n s the southern natonast. If one consders, for exampe, neary any of the we-
regarded Cv War fms such as Clory, Cettysburg, Cods and Cenerals, Cone with
the Wind, or others, one mmedatey recognzes these three affectve moods n
them a. One shoud aso note that tragedy, regret, and gory coud a be
consdered to share the same fundamenta meanchoc, nostagc core.
One of the most promnent authors of the aternatve hstory genre s Harry
Turtedove, who has wrtten aternatve hstores of the Byzantne Empre
(Turtedove has a Ph.D. n Byzantne hstory from UCLA), of Word War II, of the
Amercan Cv War, and other scenaros. In hs ongest aternatve hstory seres,
Turtedove rewrtes word hstory begnnng n 1881 by magnng a Southern vctory
n the Amercan Cv War n 1862. The frst book n the sequence, How Few Remain,
turns on the mnma rewrte (and pont of dvergence) that Genera Robert E. Lees
Speca Order 191 detang the Confederacys batte pan for an nvason of the
North s never captured by Unon troops as t was n the true hstory of the Cv
War.
23
Turtedoves How Few Remain ustrates and captures the sense of
meanchoa - ndeed ts prmary motvaton s ceary an exporaton of southern
regret n another tragc settng - surroundng southern natonast memores of the
Cv War.
In actua hstory, before the Batte of Antetam, Unon troops dscovered Lees
Speca Order wrapped around three cgars a Confederate courer had ost, and
Genera McCean of the Unon went on to stop the nvason nto Maryand before t
23
Turtledove, Harry. How Few Remain. New York: Del Rey (The Ballantine Publishing Group), 1997.
12
coud take ts panned course.
24
In Turtedoves aternatve account, n whch the
order s never dscovered, Lee eads the Confederate States of Amerca to a
reatvey quck vctory over the Unon, endng the war n 1862 and earnng the
CSAs recognzed ndependence. Turtedove further argues that Lncons
Emancpaton Procamaton was made as a resut of the dscovery of Lees Speca
Order, and so n How Few Remain the Unon never pronounces the southern saves
free. Turtedove wrtes n an authors note at the end of the nove:
Take the three cgars around whch Lees Speca Order 191 was
wrapped. In rea hstory, two Unon soders, Corpora Barton Mtche
and Frst Sergeant |ohn Boss, dscovered them after a Confederate
courer ost them. Learnng Lees batte pan and how wdey Lee had
dvded hs army whe nvadng U.S. terrtory et Genera McCean wn
the batte of Antetam. That vctory, n turn, et Lncon ssue the
Emancpaton Procamaton, whch changed the mora character of the
war. It effectvey made sure that Brtan and France, whch were at the
tme trembng on the brnk of recognzng the Confederate States and
forcng medaton on the Unted States, dd not do so.
25
The pot of How Few Remain then pvots on the second Amercan Cv War,
sparked by the CSA purchase of the Mexcan states of Sonora and Chhuahua,
gvng the CSA a Pacfc border. A number of ma|or fgures from Amercan hstory
form the key "cast" of the story, and ther aternatve fguratons are ndeed
remarkabe. Cv War genera |ames Longstreet s now Presdent of the CSA. Due to
the eary end of the frst cv war, Abraham Lncon s never assassnated and, after
hs presdency, becomes an outspoken Marxst after readng Capital and other
24
Turtledove notes this history in an author`s note at the end oI How Few Remain. Turtledove, 595.
25
Turtledove, 595.
13
works. Frederck Dougass acts as the raca-mora compass of the new natona
fguratons, and reveas that the heart of racsm n ths aternatve word es n the
North, not the South, as Northerners "bamed the reatve handfu of backs eft n
the Unted States for the breakup of the naton."
26
Stonewa |ackson, we-reputed
hero of the frst Cv War (who, n "true" contemporary southern natonast
magnares mantans status as one of the "haowed" fgures of the CSA), s now
Genera-n-Chef of the CSA and smpy so fantastc he cannot be matched: "As
Confederate Genera Stonewa |ackson agan demonstrated hs mtary expertse,
the North strugged to fnd a eader who coud prove hs equa."
27
Samue Cemens,
confederate genera |.E.B. Stuart, Unon Coone George Custer, and a young
Theodore Roosevet f out the cast of hstorca fgures. Note that a these men
serve as ma|or fgures wthn a Southern magnary as men who refect the "true
vaues" of Southern deasm; that they woud become Turtedoves cast of
characters s nterestng n tsef. Roosevet, Custer, and Cemens, vng n Unted
States terrtory, are seen as exceptons to the "gnorant Unonsts" genera fee of
the rest of the nove.
As the tae unfods, the Brtsh and French come to the ad of the CSA, whch
sets up a ma|or "twst" on twenteth century aances gong nto the frst and
second word wars, whch Turtedove expores n ater voumes of ths seres. The
CSA wns the second cv war handy. Wthout Brtsh or French support, the Unted
States turns to the German Empre for support - and I can magne you aready see
where ths s gong. In How Few Remain the North of the Cv War (the Unted States
n ts aftermath) are unequvocay the van, and the CSA the vaant savor,
emboded by ts cast of vrtuous heroes. Lncons turn towards Marxsm s,
26
Turtledove, 59.
27
Description on the rear cover oI Turtledove`s How Few Remain.
14
unsurprsngy, not to be understood as a progressve turn. Indeed, snce the hero of
the Cv War as t actuay unfoded was not prematurey ked n ths verson of
hstory, the reader nfers that Lncon actuay woud have "betrayed" Amercan
captast vaues and s not a hero at a. Lncons socasm, aong wth the new
Repubcan presdent Banes faure to wn the second war, eads to the decne of
the Repubcan Party such that no Repubcan s ever agan eected to the
Presdency n the Unted States. The Socast Party becomes the potca fo for the
Democrats n the Unted States, depctng a true "nghtmare scenaro" for
Turtedoves southern natonast readershp.
Frederck Dougass s tokenzed n How Few Remain n order to gve the
reveaton that the North was more racst than the South, who had ony supported
savery because of ts economc mperatves. Turtedove essentay converts
Dougass to be a back mouthpece aganst Unon racsm, and t shoud be noted
that other Southern backs n ths tmene are never gven any voce. The South
aboshes savery on ts own n 1880 as a condton for recevng French and Brtsh
assstance n the war, and t s the North that treats backs unfary. Eary n the
book, Dougass rdes a steamboat to St. Lous and s harassed by two Northerners:
"Look at the ngger n the fancy sut." A page ater, the two men, after Dougass
admonshes them, are ceary made to be standard Northern foos, and the reader s
to dscern that they represent the vews and ntegence of most Northerners: "Dck
here and me, were from St. Pau, and ant nether one of us ever got a good ook at
a ngger before."
28
Ths knd of southern apologia for savery and racsm s common
among re-magned Cv War scenaros, and ceary serves not truy as a form of
apoogy, but as a form of dsmssa. Though ths reworkng of the Cv War s ceary
counterfactua, the argument that the South was not as racst as the North beeds
28
Turtledove, 58-59.
15
nto an argument about how the true hstory shoud be understood. In other words,
Turtedoves raca argument n hs fctona word s to be taken as an accurate
refecton of hstorca reaty.
A number of other mnor ponts n the story work as stabs aganst the Unon
government. For exampe, because the French are aed wth the CSA, there s
never a Statue of Lberty gfted to the Unted States, and Lberty Isand becomes
"Remembrance Isand," markng Remembrance Day for the Unted States, whch s
used to remnd the North of ther dstaste for the South and to make a promse of
revenge. In another scene, the Mormon regous movement n Utah s
systematcay wped out by the Unon army. The batte s ed by Genera Custer,
and s key meant to be read as an aternatve to Custers Last Stand wth the
Soux at the Batte of Ltte Bghorn (wth the notabe dfference that Custer
emerges vctorousy n the aternatve account).
In the books that foow How Few Remain, the Unted States aance wth the
German Empre eads to an aternatve Word War I wheren Germany and the
Unted States face Brtan, France, and the CSA n a third confct between the North
and the South. Theodore Roosevet s the Democratc Presdent of the Unted States,
whe Woodrow Wson s Presdent of the CSA. The war means heavy osses for both
the Unted States and the CSA, but the U.S. eventuay forces the CSA nto an
armstce and vews the war as a vctory. The post-Word War I perod sees the rse
of socasm n the Unted States and the "Freedom Party" n the CSA. The Freedom
Party s a Southern equvaent of Nazsm, and empoys rhetorc smar to Hters to
dsmss backs as the reason for CSA defeat n Word War I. Ths aternatve hstory
becomes convouted enough that t becomes dffcut to dstngush the postve or
negatve vaence of the events unfodng unt the deveopment of nucear warfare
16
durng the Second Word War and ts use to destroy a number of European, Unted
States, and CSA ctes. The seres ends wth a cear mage that ths has been a
nghtmare scenaro, and the Unted States has won a compete vctory over the CSA
such that the natons are reunfed and an even more bruta verson of
Reconstructon s mposed on the South. In the end, the seres s a tragedy. The
South, ntay the pure and heroc force, s corrupted by ts own verson of Nazsm,
vctmzed by nucear war, and brutazed by the Unted States durng an
aohstorca Reconstructon. Turtedove has gven the South ts Cv War vctory,
but reveaed ts tragc costs. Thus, Turtedoves tae utzes the affectve moods
usuay assocated wth Cv War remembrance - tragedy, regret, and gory - to
revst them upon hs own counterfactua hstory. Turtedoves account renforces
that the prmary affectve modes of southern natonasm are meanchoc; southern
natona dentty cannot be (or at east "are not to be") understood as separate from
them.
5cenario Three: jesus Never Emerges as a 5ignificant Figure
He fet hs body draggng at the nas whch supported t. He
thought he fet a twnge of pan n hs eft hand. He seemed to be
beedng heavy.
It was odd, he refected, that t shoud be hm hangng here. He
supposed that t was the event he had orgnay come to wtness.
-Mchae Moorcock, 8ehold the Man
29
Mchae Moorcocks 1969 nove 8ehold the Man s one of the more creatve
versons of an aohstorca vst upon the hstorca |esus. Whereas other
aohstorca accounts remove |esus from sgnfcance entrey to hypothesze a
West wthout the rse of Chrstanty, Moorcock uses another common trope usuay
29
Moorcock, Michael. Behold the Man. New York: The Overlook Press, 2007 (1969), 142-143.
17
known as the "secret hstory." Whe some consder "secret hstory" a genre of ts
own, entrey separate from aternatve hstory, I thnk t depends more upon that
whch motvates the use of the trope. For exampe, Uchronia.net expcty dvdes
"secret hstory" from aternatve hstory, argung that the chef dstncton between
the two s that "the present s st the present" n secret hstores.
30
Whe ths s a
usefu dstncton to make, I do not thnk t appes whoy to the mode of operaton
wthn all "secret hstores." In Moorcocks 8ehold the Man, though the present s
unchanged, the reader s nevertheess to understand that hstory s atogether
dfferent n a manner whch thoroughy mpcates how the reader shoud evauate
the present.
8ehold the Man s the story of Kar Gogauer, a dsaffected student of |ungan
psychoogy and Aramac who, after a seres of sexua frustratons that mount n an
overwhemng dscontent wth hmsef, decdes to test a tme trave devce by takng
a one way trp to the months before |esus crucfxon so he can resove hs persona
strugges over fath and regon by wtnessng the event frsthand. Hs arrva goes
poory and hs tme machne s destroyed by the trp, and he s serousy n|ured as
we. Severa peope wtness hs arrva and take hm n to nurse hm to heath,
party motvated by the beef that he may be a prophet due to the nature of the
"charot" he arrved n. Gogauer earns that t s |ohn the Baptsts camp he s beng
cared for n, and soon |ohn begns to vst hm to ask questons n order to dscern
whether he s the messah he has searched for. Gogauer denes that he s, but hs
thck, unrecognzabe accent and pecuar answers ead |ohn and the others to
contnue beevng he may be of dvne orgn. Gogauer eventuay eaves the
vage to fnd |esus of Nazareth, and the confuson of the peope who sten to hm
30
Schmunk, Robert. Uchronia. The Alternative Historv List. 1991-2009. Last accessed online January 19, 2009 at
http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html
18
eads them to beeve that hs name s |esus of Nazareth. When Gogauer fnay
fnds a carpenter named |oseph wth a wfe named Mary, who together have a son
named |esus, he earns that |esus s crpped and mentay ncapactated, and that
he aways has been. Gogauer has an dentty crss when he reazes that ths |esus
coud not possby be the cause of the Chrstan hstory he knows. As Gogauers
own fame as ether a madman or a prophet grows due to no w of hs own, he
utmatey decdes that he must make the hstory true by performng the acts
hstorcay assocated wth |esus. He performs a seres of mnor "mraces" that are
purey the resut of hm havng a more advanced scentfc awareness than those
who foow hm, and the stores become embeshed. He chooses foowers based
upon ther names and professons so as to match the hstorca record, compes
|udas to betray hm to the Romans and te no one of hs request, and s utmatey
convcted, tortured, and crucfed as |esus. The reader s to understand that
Gogauer was aways to be the |esus of hstory.
8ehold the Man s ceary a story about a prvate, persona strugge wth
regon. Gogauer s a fgure that stands for any number of ndvdua peope who
have strugged wth ther Chrstan fath at some pont, unabe or unwng to
reconce ther doubts. On that eve, the story s a knd of parabe for dsaffected
young aduts who refect on ther Chrstan upbrngng wth dscontent and
uncertanty. On another eve, t refects a cutura ambvaence toward regon n
the ate 1960s when the nove was wrtten. Whe the 60s was a perod fu of a
number of countercutura movements n Amerca, one thng many of them shared
was a coectve antpathy for the Chrstanty wth whch they were rased. That
counterfactua accounts of |esus woud become a reatvey wdespread fctona
settng coud be consdered nevtabe. Caros Ere notes that the contngency of the
19
standard |esus story became a centra component of Chrstan fath, and that ths
sense of contngency surroundng the crucfxon myth aso contrbutes to the
popuarty of ao-Chrst stores. Ere wrtes:
|T|he possbty of an aternatve story was more than concevabe: t
became an ntegra part of the Passon narratve as recorded by the
earest Chrstans. In other words, from eary on, the Chrstan fath
depended on havng that aternatve endng on the horzon as a means
of heghtenng the sgnfcance of the Crucfxon event.
31
Ere makes a great dea of the hghy varabe possbtes emergng out of
aternate Chrst-stores, notng that neary any change to the crcumstances
of |esus death woud key dramatcay change the nature of the regous
movements that emerged from t.
32
The "eastcty and voatty of beef" are
centra themes n aohstorca depctons of |esus, and shoud be understood
as eements not ony of the hstorca perod of |esus, but of the present as
we.
33
In ths sense, a return to the hstorca settng of the Chrst tae, wth a
of ts regous voatty and uncertanty, operates prmary as a mrror of
contemporary regous anxetes. The uncertanty of beef n the 20
th
and 21
st
centures mrrors the contngences of regous beef crca 33 C.E.
Whe recognzng the precarous status of contemporary regous
beefs and potcs and aso notng the number of ways regous hstory coud
have been dfferent, t s curous to me that the constructed narratves bud
such a strong anaogy between the two perods when t s absoutey
undoubtabe that the nature of contemporary regous anxetes are unque
31
Eire, Carlos. 'The Quest Ior a CounterIactual Jesus: Imagining the West without the Cross, in Unmaking the
West. 'What-If?` Scenarios That Rewrite World Historv. Edited by Philip Tetlock, Richard Lebow, and GeoIIrey
Parker. Ann Arbor: University oI Michigan Press, 2006, 119.
32
Eire, 127.
33
Eire, 125.
20
to ths perod and drastcay dffer from the anxetes of two thousand years
ago. That aohstorca regous taes unfod aong the ne that there s a
strong anaogy to be made refects the wdespread beef that the two perods
are remarkaby smar n regous character, and ths beef utmatey
refects an anaogc mode of hstorcty. In other words, hstory s made to
make sense n ght of the present; hstory s understood by contemporary
anaogy rather than on ts own terms.
The manfestaton of aohstory n the terms of hstorcty s possby
the most nterestng concuson we shoud geam from ths study of popuar
cuture. In the foowng secton I contnue to examne the manner n whch
aohstory mouds beefs about hstory, but n greater deta as I consder two
addtona tropes common to the aohstorca enterprse.
Part lll: Allohistorical Anachronisms and Extended Allohistorical
Allusion
There are two other "modes" of aternatve hstory that I thnk warrant
examnaton for the manner n whch they refect upon hstorca memory, but
themseves devate from the standard mode of aternatve hstory wheren hstory
tsef s rewrtten. The frst of these I ca "aohstorca anachronsm," by whch I
mean the practce of takng hstorca characters or scenaros out of the tme n
whch they beong and nto another. Ths "other" tme s usuay the future, and ths
trope s usuay wthn the doman of scence fcton stores.
Ths trope was notaby used n the teevson seres 5tar Trek: The Next
Ceneration n the epsode "Descent", when Data pays a smuated poker match
wth scentsts Sr Isaac Newton, Abert Ensten, and Stephen Hawkng.
34
Another
34
Stewart, Patrick, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, and Jonathan Frakes. 'Descent. Star Trek. The Next Generation.
Season 6, episode 151. Created by Gene Roddenberry. Episode directed by Alexander Singer and written by Ronald
D. Moore. Los Angeles: Paramount Television, June 21, 1993.
21
epsode pus Samue Cemens from hs tme nto the future.
35
In an epsode of the
orgna 5tar Trek seres, Nazsm s revsted when a rogue shps captan ntroduces
t to a prmtve word as a means for rapd technoogca advancement.
36
In each of
the three cases, the vewer absorbs the representatons of the hstorca characters
and nternazes aspects of ther personates as refectons on ther true character.
In reaty, each of these representatons s a performance and carcature of the rea
fgures, yet the vewer s key to concude that there s some hstorca truth to the
representatons. In other words, the representatons come to stand n as
fctonazed yet nonetheess approxmate versons of the true fgures. Hstorca
memory s, to at east some degree, shaped by these accounts. Whe ths may not
be thoroughy negatve - for there s no doubt that there s some mnor educatona
vaue of ntroducng hstorca characters and scenaros n the pop cutura format -
t s nonetheess noteworthy that t be the case. If someone knows very tte or
nothng of Samue Cemens beyond hs hoographc whte-suted, whte-hared,
bushy-browed, back bow-ted, |ova 5tar Trek carcature, t makes for a hstory that
s shaow at best and horrfcay naccurate
at worst.
The second of these aternate
aohstorca modes s what I have dubbed
the "extended aohstorca auson," whch s
smar to the prevous trope except that the
connectons to hstorca fgures or stuatons
35
Stewart, Patrick, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, and Jonathan Frakes. 'Time`s Arrow. Star Trek. The Next
Generation. Season 5, episode 125. Created by Gene Roddenberry. Episode directed by Les Landau and written by
Joe Menosky and Michael Piller. Los Angeles: Paramount Television, June 15, 1992.
36
Shatner, William, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForrest Kelly. 'Patterns oI Force. Star Trek. The Original Series.
Season 2, episode 50. Created by Gene Roddenberry. Episode directed by Vincent McEveety and written by John
M. Lucas. Culver City, CA: Paramount Television, February 16, 1968.
22
Figure 1: Samuel Clemens as presented in
the Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode "Time's Arrow"
are never made expct, but eft mpct though overwhemng obvous to the
vewer. Though there are severa cear cases of ths, a wthn the scence fcton
genre, the most notabe s the character of Londo Moar from the teevson seres
8abylon 5.
37
Moar s ceary a fctonazed representaton of a Napoeon Bonaparte
vng n the future and beongng to an aen speces. That t s ready apparent s
cruca; t s the obvousness of the parae that makes t a form of aohstory
because the ways n whch one reads the character of Londo Moar end up
becomng facets of hstorca beef about Napoeon hmsef. In short, because the
audence reads Londo Moar as an anaogue for Napoeon, the audence assocates
certan aspects of Moar wth the true hstorca fgure of Napoeon. Moar s a man
of vces: he drnks, gambes, womanzes, usuay appears to care very tte for hs
coeagues, and has a bombastc personaty. He fghts un|ust wars of aggresson,
coudes wth unsavory (even ev) characters, assassnates an emperor to take hs
pace, and ends the seres as a petty emperor who becomes precsey that whch he
repaced (abet due to crcumstances out of hs contro). Despte hs numerous
faws, he s nevertheess a character wth whch the vewer fees a great dea of
sympathy even as he does terrbe thngs. Moars tormented conscence s a
recurrng eement of the pot throughout the seres. The prmary cues to the
Napoeonc auson made manfest n Moars character s vsua. The bggest hnt
that the vewer shoud equate Moar wth Napoeon s the har of the Centaur
speces to whch Moar beongs; the fan shape precsey mmcs the famous bcorn
hat stye of the French Napoeonc perod whch has become an conc feature of
Napoeons hstorca mage. The second cue s the recognzabe brooch adornng
Moars |acket whch s a cear adaptaton of a Napoeonc con. A thrd cue comes
37
Jurasik, Peter, Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, and Andreas Katsulas. Babvlon 5. Written and directed by J.
Michael Straczynski. 110 episodes and seven Iilms. Los Angeles, CA: Warner Bros. Television, 1993-1998.
23
n the ways n whch the Centaur roya court seems to resembe the stereotypcay
petty French roya courts of the eghteenth century. Later n the seres, Moars
mpera robes resembe a famous pantng by |ean-Auguste-Domnque Ingres of
"Napoeon on hs Impera Throne."
Utmatey, Londo Moar and
the Centaur Empre of 8abylon 5 are
a transposton of eghteenth and eary
nneteenth century France to a futuroogca and aen settng n a manner whch
eads the vewer to assocate what she or he sees on the screen wth Napoeonc
France. Whe I have no doubts of the genera vewers capacty to dstngush
scence fcton from hstorca truth, there can nevertheess be no mssng the
mpcaton that hstorca memory s referenced and attended to whe vewng
8abylon 5. To the extent that vewers nternaze that Moars character s an
auson to Napoeon, they aso nternaze that the characters personaty and
actons refect to some degree those of
Napoeon despte ther knowedge that
Moar s whoy fctona. In short, the
vewer comes to an understandng of
24
Figure 2 (left): A promotional photograph of
Londo Mollari of Babylon 5
Figure 3 (above): An oil painting of Napoleon
Bonaparte
Napoeonc France by watchng the transformatons of the Londo Moar and the
Centaur Empre n a scence fcton teevson seres. Ths s no doubt troubng, and
rases an mportant queston: to what extent are aohstorca works obged to
ether fathfuy represent the past or dstngush themseves from true hstory?
Does t matter that Londo Moar s obvousy not actually Napoeon even as he
obvousy is a representaton of hm? I have no ready answer, but the probem
arses when entertanment and aohstorca "fancy" code wth expectatons of
hstorca accuracy or fathfuness of representaton. Unfortunatey, that coson s
argey nherent to the genre.
Concluding Thoughts
A centra thess of Tetock, Lebow, and Parkers aohstorca anthoogy
Unmaking the West s that t s ony hndsght bas that makes us beeve the ony
hstory worthy of study s that whch actuay happened. Parker and Tetock wrte:
Knowedge of what subsequenty happened can systematcay dstort
whch causa antecedents we deem worthy of our attenton and can be
safey reegated to the dustbn of hstory. The more retrospectvey
obvous we can convnce ourseves the outcome was, the more dffcut
t becomes to acheve the centra msson of the hstoran: to acqure
the capacty to see the word as t once appeared to those ave at the
tme.
38
The paths of hstory are obvous to us now, but to Hters, Lees, or |esuss
contemporares they were wdy uncertan. Aohstory does a great dea more than
smpy entertan, t engages the past n a of ts contngency n ways that hep to
expore the anxetes of the present. For those who dsmss ob|ects of study whch
38
Parker, GeoIIrey and Philip Tetlock. 'CounterIactual History: Its Advocates, Its Critics, & Its Uses, in Unmaking
the West. 'What-If?` Scenarios That Rewrite World Historv. Edited by Philip Tetlock, Richard Lebow, and
GeoIIrey Parker. Ann Arbor: University oI Michigan Press, 2006, 365-366.
25
do not take themseves entrey serousy, or whch ft best under the descrptor
"popuar," I woud encourage a more encompassng vew of what counts as
mportant. The study of these works of popuar "fancy" gves an mpresson of wder
cutura trends that te a great dea about transtons n popuar hstorca memory,
and utmatey aso refects the recurrng anxetes wth whch cutures fnd
themseves managng. The works of Rosenfed, Turtedove, and Moorcock a depct
hstores whch are fundamentay counterfactua and fase, but nevertheess
ntensey refect ther contemporary strugges over natona, regous, and cutura
dentty. The ways n whch these aohstores resove ther strugges have
mportant mpcatons for how dentty and memory are shaped n our ever-
unfodng cutura paths.
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