Predicting the Past [Vol. II]

Why do we wonder “what if?” about the past?  In his pathbreaking, two-volume study, Gavriel Rosenfeld provides the first comprehensive examination of counterfactual history from its inception to the present day.  Surveying more than three millennia of western history, Rosenfeld challenges the longstanding claim that historical speculation is contrary to legitimate historical inquiry.  He documents the astounding ubiquity of counterfactual thought in the western tradition, showing how historians, theologians, politicians, philosophers, journalists, and novelists wondered “what if?” about the events of their day.  In Volume II, Rosenfeld surveys the two centuries between 1800 and the present, examining hundreds of classic texts – from Napoleon Bonaparte’s Memoirs to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle – to shed light on the missed opportunities and close calls of western history.  By showing how counterfactual history has gained an increasingly prominent place in western culture, Rosenfeld demonstrates that imagining what might have happened is essential for understanding what did.

This is the second out of two volumes. The first volume (978-3-11-224321-3) can be accessed here: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783112243237/html. Also available as a two-volume set (978-3-11-224603-0): https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783112246030/html

• first systematic study of the origins and evolution of counterfactual history from antiquity to the present
• shows how counterfactual history has been a feature of western historiography for more than 3000 years

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, Fairfield University, Connecticut, and Center for Jewish History, New York City, USA. 

“If this book had not been written, our understanding of ancient history would be poorer. Rosenfeld does a fine job of describing the frequency and kind of counterfactuals used in the ancient world and Europe up to the modern era.” – Richard Ned Lebow, King's College London.

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“It is innovative from an empirical perspective in that it compiles and analyses an impressive wealth of sources. It is packed with fascinating examples of counterfactuals in and about history. This book is the most comprehensive and ambitious work on historical counterfactuals I have seen.” – Ylva Grufstedt, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, Malmö University.

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“The scope of this work is truly magisterial and encyclopedic, an intellectual and, to an extent, social history of ideas of counterfactual historiography, thought experiments about history, and alternative history. The comprehensive scope of this work is unmatched both in time and in the variety of sources used.  This is a life’s work of an author who dedicated his intellectual life to this project.” – Aviezer Moshe Tucker, University of Ostrava.