Alternate history, or alternative history, is an exercise undertaken by historians and fiction writers. Any student of history has at some point thought about specific "what if" scenarios. It's hard not to when the pieces are seemingly there in front of you, but for various reasons, it did not happen that way in our timeline.
In this series, I intend to dive into this topic in greater detail, covering:
What is alternate history?
Are alternate and alternative interchangeable?
What does alternate history mean?
What is alternate history?
Alternate history, also called alternative history or alt history for short, is the practice of analyzing historical events as they happened and asking a simple question—what if this happened instead? Taking what we know from history and changing events based on circumstances is nothing new. In a literary sense, the first cited instance of alternate history was in 1490 when Joanot Martorell wrote Tirant lo Blanch. In the work, he creates a world where the Turks did not seize Constantinople.
The critical component of alternate history is that it is usually grounded in historical fact, but the outcomes and possibilities of what could have happened are explored. They also vary in fantasticalness to something closer to reality.
For instance, Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle, both a novel and a hit television show on Amazon, explores a simple premise—what if the Axis powers won World War II? Well known for psychological exploration, Dick's take on it is still grounded upon a simple and very possibility. On the other hand, you have Harry Turtledoves' Guns of the South, where the American Confederacy is supplied with advanced technology, resulting in them winning the American Civil War.
In my series, The Kaiser's Machines, I took the approach of grounding the reader in the reality of World War I but adding to it the possibility of armored walkers (think Star Wars AT-ATs). Everyone takes a different approach in terms of how much they want to stretch it from reality. On the other hand, there are entire studies on alternate history scenarios that aren't as fantasy-based. Called counterfactual history, one of the best examples can be found in If The Allies Had Lost: Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War II.
Are alternate and alternative interchangeable?
Depending on whom you talk to and where they are from, you might find people using alternative history versus alternate history. I may be biased coming from the American perspective, but alternate seems to be the widely accepted term when referring to this genre of speculative history and fiction. But for argument's sake, let's look at the etymology of the two terms.
Alternative is a term traced back to the late 16th century and is derived from Medieval Latin alternativus, taken from the Latin word alternatus. Alternate is derived from the same Latin word, but its first use came at the beginning of the century. Alternative means to do something, then another in turn. Alternate means by turns or offering a choice. In addition, the word alternative can be defined as a choice between two things, implying the outright rejection of one of them.
With these in mind, alternative in my mind rings more closely with the cultural movement of the same name, both in fashion and music. Personally, that's what comes to mind when I hear the word "alternative," which is why alternative history makes me think it's a history of that very thing. Not analyzing actual history for possible tangents. So, I think I can safely say that the proper term is "alternate history."
What does alternate history mean?
Alternate history means taking historical facts and exploring how the timeline we know of could have branched off. For instance, what if the Confederacy had won the Battle of Gettysburg? Or what if the Nazis had won the Battle of Britain and launched Operation Sea Lion? Many possibilities have been extensively explored in the alt history community in published works or online communities.
But for me, alternate history is really a study of "what if" for the sake of not only understanding our past and why the world is the way it is today. It's also celebrating and heeding the events of our timeline. In doing so, we can perhaps understand ourselves more as a species and uphold our best moments in history and our worse to guide us more effectively into the future.
What else is there to learn about alternate history?
After defining what the heck this whole alternate history thing is, my intent now is to get into more of the nuts and bolts of the practice. In the rest of the series, I will cover:
In this blog, I will dig through what makes up an alternate history novel and share some examples of my favorites.
Next, we'll dive into my approach to writing alternate history with some tips to help other aspiring students or writers explore this discipline.
