Essays by respected military historians, including Stephen Ambrose, David McCullough, James McPherson, and John Keegan, consider the consequences if history had turned out differently.

Originally published: New York : Putnam, c1999.

List of illustrations -- Introduction by Robert Cowley -- Infectious alternatives : the plague that saved Jerusalem, 701B.C. / William H. McNeill -- A good night's sleep can do wonders / Barbara N. Porter -- No glory that was Greece : the Persians win at Salamis, 480 B.C. / Victor Davis Hanson -- Conquest denied : the premature death of Alexander the Great / Josiah Ober -- Furor Teutonicus : the Teutoburg forest, A.D. 9 / Lewis H. Lapham -- The dark ages made lighter : the consequences of two defeats / Barry S. Strauss -- The death that saved Europe : the Mongols turn back / Cecelia Holland -- If only it had not been such a wet summer : the critical decade of the 1520s / Theodore K. Rabb -- If the Holy League hadn't dithered / Peter Pierson -- The immolation of Hérnan Cortés : Tenochtitlán, June 30, 1521 / Ross Hassig -- The repulse of the English fireships : the Spanish Armada triumphs, August 8, 1588 / Geoffrey Parker -- Unlikely victory : thirteen ways the Americans could have lost the Revolution / Thomas Fleming -- George Washington's gamble / Ira D. Gruber -- What the fog wrought : the Revolution's Dunkirk, August 29, 1776 / David McCullough -- Ruler of the world : Napoleon's missed opportunities / Alistair Horne -- Napoleon wins at Waterloo / Caleb Carr -- If the lost order hadn't been lost : Robert E. Lee humbles the Union / James M. McPherson -- A Confederate Cannae and other scenarios : how the Civil War might have turned out differently / Stephen W. Sears -- Vietnam in America, 1865 / Tom Wicker -- The what ifs of 1914 : the world war that should never have been / Robert Cowley -- Bismarck's empire : stillborn / James Chace -- Thanks, but no cigar / David Clay Large -- The armistice of desperation / Dennis E. Showalter -- How Hitler could have won the war : the drive for the Middle East, 1941 / John Keegan -- What a taxi driver wrought / Williamson Murray -- Triumph of the dictators / David Fromkin -- Our midway disaster : Japan springs a trap, June 4, 1942 / Theodore F. Cook, Jr. -- The case of the missing carriers / Elihu Rose -- D Day fails : atomic alternatives in Europe / Stephen E. Ambrose -- The Soviet invasion of Japan / Robert Cowley -- Funeral in Berlin : the Cold War turns hot / David Clay Large -- China without tears : if Chiang Kai-shek hadn't gambled in 1946 / Arthur Waldron -- A quagmire avoided? / Ted Morgan -- The end / Robert L. O'Connell.