What if????

[klr]

What If?: Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (ed. Robert Cowley)

http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Military- ... pd_sim_b_5

... and guess what , there's a Vol. 2 as well:

More What If?: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been?

http://www.amazon.com/More-What-If-Emin ... pd_sim_b_3

I have both, but I can't recall the contents off the top of my head. I might give a run-down of the contents this evening when I get a chance to look at them.

Well Hello Kevin!

Yes, 'tis I . Those would qualify as light reading for me (relatively speaking), but they fit the bill for this topic.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yes, 'tis I . Those would qualify as light reading for me (relatively speaking), but they fit the bill for this topic.

Marvin and the boys haven't been much competition I'm afraid. Good to have a serious challenger in the pack.

[klr]

Yes, 'tis I . Those would qualify as light reading for me (relatively speaking), but they fit the bill for this topic.

Marvin and the boys haven't been much competition I'm afraid. Good to have a serious challenger in the pack.

I can at least talk a good game (as the saying goes). As to how much I really know ...

Now, where are those historical trivia thread thingies?

[Geoff]

Yes, 'tis I . Those would qualify as light reading for me (relatively speaking), but they fit the bill for this topic.

Marvin and the boys haven't been much competition I'm afraid. Good to have a serious challenger in the pack.

I can at least talk a good game (as the saying goes). As to how much I really know ...

Now, where are those historical trivia thread thingies?

[Feck]

What if the founder of genetics Gregor Mendel had lied about his results

[klr]

Yes, 'tis I . Those would qualify as light reading for me (relatively speaking), but they fit the bill for this topic.

Marvin and the boys haven't been much competition I'm afraid. Good to have a serious challenger in the pack.

I can at least talk a good game (as the saying goes). As to how much I really know ...

Now, where are those historical trivia thread thingies?

I'll have to start a thread or two about aircraft as well at some point.

... but not just now, as work beckons for the next few hours.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'll have to start a thread or two about aircraft as well at some point.

... but not just now, as work beckons for the next few hours.

When you come back we can argue discuss whether the FR-1 was the first jet to make a carrier landing or not.

[klr]

I'll have to start a thread or two about aircraft as well at some point.

... but not just now, as work beckons for the next few hours.

When you come back we can argue discuss whether the FR-1 was the first jet to make a carrier landing or not.

The sad thing is that I didn't even need to google that to get the joke.

Sadder still, I am something of an expert on the US Navy/Marine 1923-1962 aircraft designation system. Not that I want to be, but it just goes with the territory of being an aircraft modeller and general aircraft buff. That and because I have a interest in coding systems, which probably explains where I am today work-wise.

Speaking of which ...

[Geoff]

I'll have to start a thread or two about aircraft as well at some point.

... but not just now, as work beckons for the next few hours.

When you come back we can argue discuss whether the FR-1 was the first jet to make a carrier landing or not.

While we're waiting, we need to refine definitions...first jet should mean first jet-only, which would rule out the Fireball (which wasn't a proper jet!).

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'll have to start a thread or two about aircraft as well at some point.

... but not just now, as work beckons for the next few hours.

When you come back we can argue discuss whether the FR-1 was the first jet to make a carrier landing or not.

While we're waiting, we need to refine definitions...first jet should mean first jet-only, which would rule out the Fireball (which wasn't a proper jet!).

Oh yeah?

[Hermit]

What if the founder of genetics Gregor Mendel had lied about his results

Fabrication is not exactly the same as lying.

It wouldn't have made much difference at all. Calculus, the theory of evolution, the telephone, the heavier than air flying machine et cetera, et cetera, were more often discovered / developed / made feasible several times independently and almost simultaneously. If Mendel had enough of an inkling regarding how genetics might work to falsify experimental data to fit his hunch, others would most likely come up with the same in short order.

What if the Versaille Treaty had looked more like the Marshall Plan?

[Ian]

My favorite history topic! I love counterfactual ("What If?") history. In fact I own three books on the subject (look up "What If" by Robert Cowley - they're compilations of essays by various historians from John Keegan to Stephen Ambrose on how history often hinged on little details, and how things might've turned out very differently). Anyway...

What if the Versaille Treaty had looked more like the Marshall Plan?

I'm not sure how much of a difference this would have made in preventing the rise of Nazism and WWII. The Great War took a horrific human toll, but reconstruction wasn't needed as badly in order to prevent starvation and political extremism as were the motives for the Marshall Plan. Germany suffered a few economic crises before the Great Depression took hold (hyperinflation at one point, for example), but ultimately the liberal democratic Weimar Republic failed because of a historic lack of liberal democrats in Germany. I don't think a kinder treaty ending WWI would've solved that, and it certainly wouldn't have ended the deep anti-semetic sentiments which ran through German culture at the time. I'm one who believes the greatest cause of WWII was ultimately the conditions which arose from the Great Depression, allowing political radicals like Hitler to seize power.

Next question:
What if the weather on June 6, 1944 was just a little bit worse - and the D-Day invasion had failed?

[Brian Peacock]

What if the weather on June 6, 1944 was just a little bit worse - and the D-Day invasion had failed?

Then the film 'The Longest Day' would have had a different title ("Tag Des Ruhmes"?), and I'd be typing in German.

What if Richard Starkey hadn't replaced Peter Best as drummer in The Quarrymen?

[klr]

My favorite history topic! I love counterfactual ("What If?") history. In fact I own three books on the subject (look up "What If" by Robert Cowley - they're compilations of essays by various historians from John Keegan to Stephen Ambrose on how history often hinged on little details, and how things might've turned out very differently). Anyway...

I mentioned those yesterday. Well, only the first two. I didn't realise there was a third volume, but it's now on my "to get" list.

One of my favourites from the first volume is the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (Teutoburg Wald) in 9 A.D. And of course there's the Battle of Midway. No movie can probably ever do full justice to the drama in that battle.

What if the weather on June 6, 1944 was just a little bit worse - and the D-Day invasion had failed?

Then the film 'The Longest Day' would have had a different title ("Tag Des Ruhmes"?), and I'd be typing in German.

Or else it wouldn't have been made at all ... ... Might they have made films about different events?

What if Richard Starkey hadn't replaced Peter Best as drummer in The Quarrymen?

Aha: Now that really is one of history's most important "what if's?"

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What if horses had survived in the Western Hemisphere?