By: Jeremiah Chiappelli, Editor
Welcome to A Different Path, where history takes, well, a different path.
As a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history is relatively recent, although the roots of alternate history go far back. I created this magazine because I felt there was a vacuum in the alternate history world. There are already a few magazines in this vacuum, Paradox, which is just starting up, and Would That It Were. The big boys of science fiction, Analog, Asimov's, and the other pro's, have also published alternate history, but not exclusively. Alternate History seems to skip the magazines and go right into novels and anthologies. That's where we come in.
Besides being a sub-genre in science fiction, alternate history can also be considered a sub-discipline of history. Like evolution, history has only happened once (that we know of). Both seek general rules which govern the process. To do so, both use thought experiments and see how they stack up to reality. Logic tells us that when two countries go to war, the country with the stronger economy should win because it can rally more resources. During the American Civil War, the North had the stronger economy and won. During World War's I and II, the allies had the stronger economies and won. Yet the United States defeated England during the America Revolution. Clearly there are other factors at work.
Alternate history looks at those factors and plays with them. Would France have attempted to conquer all of Europe without Napoleon? Would the Mormon church have arisen without Joseph Smith? What if the Aztecs had discovered the steam engine? What if the Neolithic Americans had not killed off the native horses? Which factors are the most important?
I'm a big fan of speculative fiction. It's probably the hardest genre to write and read in. Not only do you have to worry about the usual writing stuff (plot, characters, theme), you also have to worry about science, history, sociology, and a dozen other fields. In alternate history, accurate history is the big concern (naturally). It requires the writer to communicate these ideas to a reader who may not be as familiar with the material as the author. But if the material is wrong, you had better believe that the reader will catch it.
Alternate history also has a nobility to it. It reminds us that we are part of history and that history can be changed. History is something none of us can escape. By recognizing the factors in history, it prepares us to make better decisions in the future. We may not be destined to be the next Napoleon, but history is not always made by individuals. Groups make history. Sometimes small groups. Sometimes groups of small groups.
More so than other fiction genres, alternate history prepares us for the future.
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