What if there had been no American War of Independence? What if Hitler had invaded Britain? What if Kennedy had lived? What if Russia had won the Cold War? Niall Ferguson, author of the highly acclaimed The Pity of War, leads the charge in this historically rigorous series of separate voyages into imaginary time and provides far-reaching answers to these intriguing questions.Ferguson's brilliant 90-page introduction doubles as a manifesto on the methodology of counter-factual history. His equally masterful afterword traces the likely historical ripples that would have proceeded from the maintenance of Stuart rule in England. This breathtaking narrative gives us a convincing, detailed alternative history of the West--from the accession of James III in 1701, to a Nazi-occupied England, to a U.S. Prime Minister Kennedy who lives to complete his term.

What if Britain had stayed out of World War I? What if Germany had won World War II? These are just some of the questions to which "Virtual History" provides answers, a book in which historians explore what would have happened if nine momentous events had turned out differently.

An anthology in which various historians reverse the sands of time and ponder what might have been in a fascinating historical exploration.