Brunswick Dr. John R. Van Atta
Department of History
Content: Just consider: What if Great Britain and the colonies had reconciled and there had been no American Revolution. What if Pickett’s Charge had succeeded, or if John Wilkes Booth had been caught before assassinating Abraham Lincoln? How would our history have unfolded if Napoleon had refused to sell the Louisiana Territory in 1803, or if Theodore Roosevelt had won the election of 1912, or if the Red Sox had not sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920? In what ways would our lives be different today if the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor, or if the D-Day Invasion had collapsed? Let us suppose the bullets fired at John F. Kennedy in 1963 had missed, or that the terrorist plans for September 11, 2001, had been thwarted—what then? This course will be unlike any you have ever taken before, one that gets away from the “facts” and lets your imaginations run wild with speculation—a journey through a shadow universe of what might have been if only a few key events could be reversed. Sometimes historians write history as if the outcomes that we have experienced were somehow inevitable. In truth, nothing is really inevitable; history is contingent on circumstances that are variable and often uncontrollable. This course will examine selected watershed events, asking the simple question: what if something different had happened?
Course policies: There will be NO tests or quizzes. Students will be asked to write TWO short “alternative history” papers each quarter (about 3-5 pages each) and ONE oral presentation each quarter, featuring a “What if?” scenario of his or her own invention. The papers and the oral presentation will be worth 100 points each—for a total of 300 points. In lieu of a mid-year examination, there will be some kind of final “What if?” written exercise at the end of the semester. As an official reminder: Plagiarism on a paper is the act of representing another person's work as your own. Cheating is any violation of specified rules for test taking or paper-writing. Any student who chooses to commit either offense risks severe punishment under school rules. Students are advised to read carefully the Brunswick History Department’s “Guidelines Regarding Academic Integrity.”
Reading: Selected parts will be recommended from following books, all available for immediate purchase at the Brunswick bookstore:
Robert Cowley, ed., What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (New York, 2003).
________________, What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (New York, 1999).
________________, What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (New York, 2001).
SEMESTER SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE
Introduction
VA’s Rules of “What If?
The American Revolution
What could, or should, the British have done differently to prevent it?
Could the Americans have lost—and if so, what then?
What Ifs? of American History
Caleb Carr, “William Pitt the Elder and the Avoidance of the American Revolution,” 17-42.
David McCullough, “What the Fog Wrought: The Revolution’s Dunkirk, August 29, 1776,” 43-54.
What If? 1
Thomas Fleming, “Unlikely Victory: Thirteen Ways the Americans Could Have Lost the Revolution.” 155-186.
WEEK THREE
Age of Jefferson
What if Napoleon had refused to sell the Louisiana Territory?
What if the Federalists had won in 1804?
A Journeyman’s Dilemma
What If? 2
Thomas Fleming, “Napoleon’s Invasion of North America,” 134-151.
Handouts in Class
The Jacksonian Era
A Mill Girl’s Dilemma
A Squatter’s Dilemma
A Taxpayer’s Dilemma
Nullification Crisis: you resolve it.
What Ifs? of American History
Tom Wicker, “‘His Accidency’” John Tyler,” 55-65.
Handouts in Class
WEEK FIVE
Sectional Crisis
A Slaveholder’s Dilemma
John Brown’s Decision
Handouts in class
WEEK SIX
The Civil War
Military Turning Points—Turned Around
The decision for emancipation—revisited.
How could the South have won—and what if they had?
What If? I
Stephen W. Sears, “A Confederate Cannae and Other Scenarios: How the Civil War Might Have Turned Out Differently,” 239-258.
What If? 2
Tom Wicker, “If Lincoln Had Not Freed the Slaves,” 152-164.
What Ifs? of American History
James M. McPherson, “If the Lost Order Hadn’t Been Lost: Robert E. Lee Humbles the Union, 1862,” 87-102.
Jay Winik, “Beyond the Wildest Dreams of John Wilkes Booth,” 127-145.
Thomas Fleming, “The Northwest Conspiracy,” 103-125.
WEEK SEVEN
Money, Class, and Gender
The Re-trial of Lizzie Borden
Handouts in Class
WEEK EIGHT
First Quarter Scenario Presentations
1900-1918
What if Theodore Roosevelt had won in 1912?
Could American involvement in World War I have been averted?
The Versailles Treaty: to ratify or not to ratify—you decide.
What If? 2
John Lukacs, “The Election of Theodore Roosevelt, 1912,” 181-194.
Robert L. O’Connell, “The Great War Torpedoed,” 195-209.
What If? 1
Robert Cowley, “The What Ifs of 1914,” 261-287.
WEEK TEN
World War II—Pearl Harbor, and After
What if Pearl Harbor had not been attacked?
What if Midway had been lost?
What if Franklin D. Roosevelt had not been president?
What Ifs? of American History
John Lukacs, “No Pearl Harbor?: FDR Delays the War,” 179-188.
What If? I
Theodore F. Cook, Jr., “Our Midway Disaster,” 311-339.
What If? 2
Geoffery C. Ward, “The Luck of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” 236-254.
WEEK ELEVEN
World War II—from D-Day to Hiroshima
What if D-Day had failed?
The Bomb: to drop or not to drop—you decide.
What If? 1
Stephen E. Ambrose, “D Day Fails,” 341-348.
What If? 2
Richard B. Frank, “No Bomb: No End,” 366-381.
What Ifs? of American History
Antony Beevor, “If Eisenhower Had Gone to Berlin,” 189-204.
The Cold War
Could the United States have done more to prevent it?
Missiles in Cuba—you decide.
What If? 2
James Chace, “The Presidency of Henry Wallace,” 382-403.
What If? 1
David Clay Large, “Funeral in Berlin,” 351-375.
What Ifs? of American History
Robert L. O’Connell, “The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust,” 251-272.
WEEK THIRTEEN
The 1960s
The Civil Rights Movement without Martin Luther King, Jr.
What if Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullets had missed?
What If? 2
Lance Morrow, “A Tale of Three Congressmen, 1948,” 404-412.
hat Ifs? of American History
Robert Dallek, “JFK Lives,” 273-284.
WEEK FOURTEEN
Watergate
The Impeachment Trial of Richard M. Nixon
What Ifs? of American History
Lawrence Malkin and John F. Stacks, “What If Watergate Were Still Just an Upscale Address?,” 285-298.
September 11, 2001
How could the attack have been prevented?
How has it changed our lives?
Handouts in Class
WEEK SIXTEEN
Second Quarter Scenario Presentations