History As Alternate History: Margaret MacMillan’s The War that Ended Peace

It’s been a busy month here at Somerset House Press.  Not only am I still holding down my day job, but I’m also writing two novels – one my own H.P. Lovecraft inspired work, the other I’m editing for a friend. I recently picked up a paperback copy of Robert Conroy’s (readers will know I have an ambiguous relationship with him) Rising Sun. I''ll review that novel in  a later posting.

I’m now reading, besides the excellent The Violent Century, by Lavie Tidhar, The War That Ended Peace, by Margaret MacMillan, which tells about the last years of the peace in Europe before the start of the Great War.

Perhaps with the approaching century mark of the start of the war this August, reading a book about the subject makes some sense.  After all, as MacMillan writes, we are still trying to make sense of how and why the First World War started.  Although I’m not yet a third through her book, she I think, cogently demonstrates that this was a war that didn’t necessarily have to happen. “What did the decision-makers think they were doing?” she asks. “Why didn’t they pull back this time as they had done before? Why, in other words, did the peace fail?”

Without the First World War, what would’ve happened?  Would the peace finally have broken down at some point in the future and we would’ve had a Great War, no matter what?  Or would somehow the peace would’ve gone on – no war, no millions dead on the battlefield, no countries shattered, no need to the Treaty of Versailles that punished Germany in a victor’s peace, no Nazi Party and no Adolf Hitler to take control over it, no Second World War, no Holocaust.  No collapse of the Tsarist Russia and no Cold War.

It could’ve been better or it could’ve been worse.  Several authors such as Michael Moorcock, have examined this theme from both sides.

Just as I have always maintained, the it’s the best in alternate history that examines history in new lights, it’s also serves the cause of history best when historians ask, what if?

If you’re interested in a compelling and intelligent non-fiction read, I recommend Margaret MacMillan’s The War That Ended Peace.

In the meantime, have a look at my own books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.   Thanks.

An Examination of A Road Not Taken

I am taking a break from the usual book review this month to write about something a little different. It still is very much in keeping with the theme of this blog, the roads of not taken of history, but this time, the road of is of very a personal sort.

Mine.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I wonder how my life would’ve turned out so differently if only I did this or that. If only. That the fact that there were two people talking today on CBC Radio’s Tapestry talking about the very same subject that I had planned to write about (Synchronicity?) signals that as much.

I know my life could be  much worse. I know my life as it stands, despite its ups and downs, it is a good one for which I am thankful. But sometimes I catch myself wondering if only. And sometimes, if I think hard enough, I can catch a glimpse…

I’m looking over the stainless steel double kitchen sink out the window of my suburban home into the backyard where night has fallen.  I’m in my early 50s, have a gut, and my hair is a grey scrub slowly receding across my forehead.  Doesn’t matter, I smile, putting the last of the day’s dishes to soak. The window is foggy with the mist of a big Sunday supper.  Except for the soft humming of the fridge and the muted sounds of the TV from the living room, the house, which I have shared with my wife for most of 25 years, is quiet. 

It was my night to clean up after Carol had cooked. It was an arrangement Carol had and I had going since way back. We had the both our kids over for supper tonight: one is going to college and the other is following in his old man’s footsteps and working at the auto plant with him.

I met Carol in high school. Or rather she met me. Kept smiling at me under that mass of blonde hair with those green eyes until I found the guts to ask her out.

 It hasn’t been easy; who said it would be? It was tough for Carol and I in the early years. We were so damn young, then.  We weren’t ready when our son was born prematurely. We were all lucky and had some good doctors: he made it, of course. As time wore on, we got more settled. Our family grew when a couple of years later when our daughter was born. We all got through the strikes and the layoffs at the plant okay; we had to refinance the house once to carry us through.

Ancient history now. In a few years, after putting in my 30 years at the plant, I can retire.  I worry about my son and what the future will bring for him. The car industry isn’t as secure as it used to be. 

In a few minutes, after I’m done, I’ll go into the living room and turn off the TV that no one is watching. I walk up the creaking stairs to our bedroom to where Carol waits for me.  And maybe we’ll fuck. I grin again.

And tomorrow, as I’ve always done since high school, before go to work, I’ll steal an hour for myself. I’ll sit in front of that old Windows ’97 computer that takes forever to boot up in my daughter’s old room and work on the same novel that I’ve been working on since high school. 

And as I do, I’ll catch myself wondering. If only.

Back to the book reviews next month.  

In the meantime, have a look at my own books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.   Thanks.

One From My Bookshelves: Reviewing Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream

What if Hitler wrote The Lord of the Rings? I mean a really racist twisted version of The Lord of the Rings?

Then you might get Lord of the Swastika, the book-within-a-book, featured in Norman Spinrad’s 1969 classic, The Iron Dream.  

Controversial when it was first published, The Iron Dream’s backdrop for the story in a story is that Communists overthrew the German Government in the ‘30s, leading to domination of Europe in 1948 by the Greater Soviet Union. World War Two never happened in this world. Only the United States and the militarist Japanese Empire remain standing.  In this world, Adolf Hitler arrives as refugee in the United States and earns a reputation as an author of pulp fiction of the thud and blunder variety.

Before dying in 1955, Hitler completes his masterwork, Lord of the Swastika, which is an essentially a sideways look at Hitler’s conquests in our world.  The novel’s six foot tall, broad shouldered, blonde-haired, blue eyed protagonist, Feric Jaggar, is Hitler; Helder is Germany; the Doms are the Soviets; and the Zind, are well… it flows from there.  Of course, being Hitler’s fantasy, it doesn’t end in a bunker in 1945 as he goes onto colonize the stars with a race of SS Aryan clones.

Spinrad strikes the perfect note by keeping within the “book within a book” conceit, with “an afterward to the second edition” by literary critic Homer Whipple. Whipple, a perfectly drawn character in his own right, is quick to point out every fetishist and phallic image in Hitler's paranoid little fantasy, and undercuts Hitler’s prose and philosophy to the quick.

As a consequence of its (dare I say it again?) controversial nature, The Iron Dream is hard to find, even being banned in West Germany for a period of time. However, it is well worth the read. In fact, it is a tour de force of the alt-history genre and especially of the ever-popular Nazis-win-the-war subgenre. So look for it online or at your local used bookstore. 

Meantime, I’m continuing to read Lavie Tidhar’s The Violent Century and I am enjoying it. I’ll have a full review in a future blog. 

In the meantime, have a look at my own books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.   Thanks.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

 Once again, I have been absent from this space.  I’m sorry – but with an explanation. I have since relocated (once again) for employment and am happy to report things are going well on that front.

In between moving into a new apartment, packing, unpacking, moving, and starting a new job and the Christmas holidays in between, I have managed to do some reading and more…

Over the last few months I read, If Kennedy Lived, by Jeff Greenfield, which imagines the first and second terms of JFK had he not been assassinated in Dallas. The author, journalist and political analyst Jeff Greenfield, deftly imagines a realistic and believable world that unlike other books of this sort, treats its subject as human being first – warts and all.   John F. Kennedy was a great man, but he also had his failings; Greenfield is the first to admit that, but the world he leaves us with is one that is more optimistic and somehow more innocent than our own. It’s highly recommended. 

The next book I read was In War Times, by Kathleen Ann Goonan.  Goonan gamely mixes particle physics, jazz, and alternate history to create a story that delights. Soon after his brother killed at Pearl Harbor, Sam Dance his contacted by a mysterious woman with a plan to build a device that may not only bring peace in our time but in all times. Along the way, Goonan expands upon her thesis that since 1945, we have never really been at peace.  It’s definitely worth adding to your reading list.

Alternate history on television and film is still rather rare.  With the century anniversary of the start of the Great War approaching this year, the History Channel turned history sidewise and threw in a dash of H.G. Wells, with The Great Martian War.  The mockumentary tells the story of a Martian invasion falling upon an unsuspecting Europe in 1913, just as it was arming for war. 

As I’ve long said, alternate history is at its best when it is able to shine a light on our past through a different perspective.  Using state of the art CGI visual effects and such faux-documentary touches as interviews, The Great Martian War helps explain both the Great War and the world it made.  It does have some largish plot holes – for example, that the United States would stay out of the war for so long the face of an alien invasion. That being said, it’s still worth watching. If you haven’t seen it, hopefully History will re-run it at some point in the future; I’ve got it saved on my PVR.

Lastly, I’m reading The Violent Century by the author of Osama (reviewed in an earlier posting), Lavie Tidhar. It’s an excellent book, but it left me a tad confused. At first I didn't think it was alt-history; but now, after some serious and enjoyable page-turning, I’m certain it is.  

I will provide a review of the book in a future posting… which, I hope, won’t be so long in coming.

In the meantime, have a look at my own books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.   Thanks.

Another Excerpt: The Key To My Heart

While we're at it, here's another excerpt from my newly-released ebook, The Key to My Heart where our hero, P.I. Chance Gannon finds himself in trouble:

I was on the hard cold concrete floor, tasting the salt in my own blood.

They were beating on me, banging on every nerve ending like a maestro would on the keys of his piano. The pain never went away; but after the first few blows it did dull. A little.  And if it was something the recent years have taught me, it was you could endure pain. Schmitt aimed another hard kick to my gut. I doubled over and puked up a mix of blood and this morning’s breakfast. I looked up at the bastard. That goddamn gold tooth glinted in his smug Nazi smile. “So, perhaps you are not so cocky now,” said Schmitt.

“Go to hell,” I snarled.

 

“Wrong answer,” said Beck from behind me. My spine burned up and down as his boot connected with it. I gritted my teeth.  “Tell us about Walter Carswell,” said Beck.

“I don’t know anything about him,” I spat.

“Wrong answer!” I saw stars as his fist connected with my face.

 I sagged back and fell against the damp cinderblock wall. Wiping the blood from mouth with my sleeve, I looked up. Beck and Schmitt stood in the semidarkness, their rough facial features highlighted by the shadows. I rolled over and lay down on the floor.

Beck walked over and knelt down, putting his face up to mine, close enough to smell the sauerkraut he must’ve had for lunch. “It would go much better for you if you cooperated, Mr. Gannon. Why are you foolishly insisting on this?”

“Maybe I…” I was going crack wise, but I clammed up. I saw something that make me blink: Beck still had the same jacket he wore when they picked me up… and under it, I could see the butt of my .45 gleaming dully in his belt. Real amateur night.  I pulled myself up on one elbow. “Water. Water please.”

“Karl, bring us some water,” said Beck to Schmitt.

“Careful Hans,” said Schmitt, who seemed to be half-ways reading my mind. He poured a glass of water from a pitcher on a table and passed it to him.

“Nonsense,” said Beck, accepting the glass. “Perhaps Mr. Gannon has learned the value of cooperation.” He patted my cheek with the palm of his hand like I was a good doggie. “See?” He passed me the glass.

I barely had time to sip the water, as cold good as it felt in my bloody mouth. My other hand was in his belt, grabbing the butt of my gun. I yanked it out and palmed off the safety as I brought it up to Beck. Beck’s mouth opened to form a giant O as he reached for his own gun. I was faster, this time. My finger squeezed the trigger twice and my hand jerked with the recoil as Beck dropped to his knees and fell over backwards. I rolled over, still on the floor. Schmitt was struggling with his Schmeisser when I fired, dropping him in his right leg. His submachine gun clattered to the floor as he rolled around, blood seeping through his finger as he clutched his leg and his eyes tearing up with pain. Leaning on a chair, I lurched to his feet and had another look at Schmitt. I stuck my gun in my belt; he wasn’t worth it, just now. See how it feels, tough guy. I found the door and got myself out of the room.

I leaned on the banister as I climbed up the rickety basement stairs.  With any luck, I wouldn’t be running into von Stroheim or any other of his flunkies. Not until I was feeling better. I gasped, holding back the as I hit the top of the stairs. I pushed the door open. No time to see if the door was open. I could see another door, with a window in it, and beyond that, blue sky. I lurched across for the door, shoving it open and pushing myself through.

I was at the top of the same flight of stairs as they’d brought up. The street was a long way down. Fighting the dizziness and everything else, I grabbed at the long black rail and began to climb down, one slow step at a time. Halfway down, a heard a voice behind me, all too familiar.

“Herr Gannon,” said von Stroheim, standing at the top of the stairs. “I do not know how you escaped, but in your condition, I imagine you cannot get very far, nacht whar?” He motioned with his hand and two new boys I’d never seen before came up beside him, their hands resting inside their jackets. “Please be sensible.”

It was then I heard the siren, as welcome as the sound of a cavalry bugle in all of those cheesy westerns. Guess the neighbors are nosy here, too. It was followed two seconds later by a SFPD prowl car, pulling up at the bottom of the steps. I looked up at von Stroheim and his goons and down at the two uniforms who had stepped out of the car and were looking up at me, then at the others, unreadable expressions on their faces. “No thanks boys,” I said, finishing off the last few steps, “I think my ride’s here.”

You can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing my books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.