10 Great What-Ifs of American History

by Adam Jortner

History may appear logical and even inevitable: Things happened because they had to. But when you go back to examine the great turning points of the past, you quickly discover how choices, chances, and accidents played a huge rule in making the world we know today. Politicians, writers, explorers, and ordinary people all make choices that shape history. But examining the moments that define our history raises an important question: What if things had gone differently?

Historians have a term for this type of speculation. A “counterfactual” history imagines a different person, a different decision, different luck in a critical moment—and the way a small change could have transformed history as we know it. What if Christopher Columbus never got the money to sail in 1492? What if the Union lost the Battle of Gettysburg? Or President John F. Kennedy escaped assassination?

As you’ll learn, a well-constructed counterfactual is about more than flipping a switch or taking a guess. Historians look for moments of “contingency”—times when something unlikely happened or when events turned on a moment that could have gone either way. What happens when you take away favorable weather conditions or delay an event by 15 minutes?

Accompanied by a selection of guests, Professor Jortner takes you through a mind-bending exploration of the history that could have been. Captivating storytellers and imaginative thinkers, these experts show how history is contingent on split-second decisions, near misses, and sheer dumb luck. By reflecting on what didn’t happen, 10 Great What-Ifs of American History gives you new insights on what did happen—and the impact on our world today.

Genres: History, Audiobook, Nonfiction

4 pages, Audible Audio

Published March 29, 2024

About the author

Adam Jortner studies the transformation of religious and political life in the early United States. His book, The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier, examines the rise of the Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa and his new religion on the Indiana frontier in the 1800s. Jortner argues that Tenskwatawa’s religious vision created a new definition of community and power that ultimately coalesced into a viable political alternative for Native Americans in the Old Northwest. The book follows the creation of this movement and its fraught relationship with the new United States and Indiana’s ambitious territorial governor, William Henry Harrison. The relationship between the two men ultimately shaped the War of 1812 and the fate of the American frontier. Gods won the 2013 James Broussard Best First Book Prize from the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR).

His current research interests include new religions in the early republic, deism, witchcraft, the decline of magic, and Native American prophets; he currently teaches classes on American religion, politics, and the Age of Jefferson. He is working on a manuscript on the politics of miracles in the early republic.

Dr. Jortner has received fellowships from the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Kentucky Historical Society, and the Redd Center for Western Studies.

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 Great What-Ifs of American History was a decent short offering from The Great Courses. I have taken a few dozen of them, and I generally enjoy the content they produce.

Course presenter Adam Jortner is the Goodwin-Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion in the Department of History. He specializes in the history of religion in the American Revolution and the early nation, with particular emphasis on religious liberty, patriotism and piety, theology, and new religious traditions.

Adam Jortner :


Professor Jortner delivers these 10 lectures in a high-energy fashion, so the course shouldn't have trouble holding the finicky reader's attention. He has an effective oratory style that worked in this presentation.

The formatting of the course is fairly typical for offerings from The Great Courses. The series is split into 10 lectures, each ~30mins. The lectures are:
1. What If Lee Won at Gettysburg?
2. What If Lewis and Clark Vanished?
3. What If the Allies Lost World War II?
4. What If the Soviets Got to the Moon First?
5. What If the Constitution Did Not Pass?
6. What If Columbus Never “Discovered” America?
7. What If Lincoln Never Issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
8. What If the Salem Witch Trials Never Happened?
9. What If Nat Turner Succeeded?
10. What If JFK Survived?

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10 Great What-Ifs of American History was a fun short course. I would recommend it.
3.5 stars.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you ever wonder what would have happened if Lee won the Civil War? What if the assassination attempt on FDR had been successful? Those and other rewrites of historical events are explored in this book. It is always fascinating to me to wonder what would happen if we changed just one thing in history.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book looks like it is just a clever thought exercise of the "what if Hitler had died during WWI and never came to rule Germany" type. But it is actually quite a bit more than that because after laying out the "alternate future history", Jortner goes back and shows just how fragile the real history was.

For example: What if Louis and Clark had never returned from their voyage of discovery? Not only does Jortner plausibly construct the negative impact on the expansion of the United States, he takes the time to point out just how plausible the expedition failing really was. After all, three other expeditions into the Louisiana Territory never returned. And Clark (I think it was Clark) was almost killed by a grizzly bear on two different occasions. And let's face it, most of us know that the entire expedition would have monumentally failed without the extraordinary help they received from Sacagawea who was only fifteen years old at the time. By the end of the chapter, you'll be convinced that there might have been a very different United States than Louis and Clark showed us.

All of the chapters are like that—opening up a question and then getting into the nitty gritty details that help to understand how easily things really could have gone a different way. Jortner continually reminds us that we tend to think of history as inevitable, but often it is just a little bit of luck (good or bad) that made it unfold the way it did.

This is a wonderful Great Courses text. I hope he follows up with another volume.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this topic, and thought the 10 scenarios presented here were well presented! Topics include: What if Lee had won at Gettysburg? What if JFK had not been killed? What if the US had not entered World War II? The great thing about these subjects is there is often a single event or decision that was not inevitable that, had it gone the other way, might have resulted in a different outcome which itself might have resulted in a new paradigm or branch of history. As the professor reminds us, it tells us that history nor our future is inevitable, and that "the way things were" are often no more than a happy accident of one event after another.

The only things that keep me from rounding up to 5 stars: First, the what if regarding the Salem witch trials was a little hard to buy fully, even though I appreciate where they're coming from. Second, this is one of the shortest Great Course lectures. I would really love to have more of these in one collection.

[Scott Mankowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counterfactuals is a valid method of studying history. It looks at certain hinge points, where a small change could have had a large impact on the outcome. Ultimately, however, everything could be counterfactual, and the method becomes tedious. One also realizes that many what ifs would probably have turned out the same way eventually.

I just find it hard to get excited about history, especially history that never happened.

[Christian Loidl · Rating 5 out of 5]

"History isn't written in stone. It's contingent upon numerous things that have the potential to change everything. A different Person, a different decision, a different question, could change history as we know it. Counterfactional scenarios are more then games or science-fiction. By looking at how things might have been, we get a better look of why things are."

[Edward ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

well thought out and great fun