⇒ Libro If The South Had Won The Civil War MacKinlay Kantor Dan Nance Harry Turtledove 9780312869496 Books

If The South Had Won The Civil War MacKinlay Kantor Dan Nance Harry Turtledove 9780312869496 Books

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If The South Had Won The Civil War MacKinlay Kantor Dan Nance Harry Turtledove 9780312869496 Books

This small volume marks a return to the subject of the Civil War, that Kantor had explored so thoroughly in his sprawling novel Andersonville. Instead of a dramatization of history, here Kantor embarks on what author Harry Turtledove describes in the preface as possibly the first example of alternative history. Turtledove compares it to science fiction, with the distinction that while science fiction imagines a future based on developments in the present, Kantor's alternative history of the Civil War, imagines a different present based on changes to key events in the past. Written from the vantage point of 1960 (when the book was first published), Kantor describes a very different history of the preceding century, following from alternative events that led to a very different outcome.

***SPOILERS***

The details of this alternate history are astonishing, although possibly not surprising, as Kantor touches on relations between the United and Confederate States, the further secession of Texas, and combined efforts in the two World Wars. Slavery, as it turns out, was abolished within a few decades, and while African-Americans did not achieve full equality, they also did not suffer through Jim Crow, lynching, and other forms of overt repression, based on the theory that since emancipation was not forced on the slave states, the resulting animosity never developed. Kantor, unfortunately, spends little time on the westward expansion, and does not mention the treatment of the Native Americans, other than describing the Confederate annexation of Indian Territory. We also hear of "Russian America," which eventually poses an existential threat to the three American countries, but not much beyond that. The book ends on a hopeful note of reunification. It's telling to contrast Kantor's positive outlook with that in Kevin Wilmott's mocumentary CSA: The Confederate States of America, that imagines a worldwide expansion of racism and slavery that follows a Confederate victory.

According to the afterword, Kantor wrote this book at the behest of Look Magazine executive editor Daniel Mich, who urged him to take a break from the novel he was working on at the time, Spirit Lake, a story of the events around the last attack by the Lakota on settlers in Iowa in 1857. Kantor provides an explanation for the choices made in his alternate Civil War; apparently, the pivotal history-changing events came very close to actually taking place. It's possible that his eagerness to get back to "Spirit Lake" led him to write "If the South Had Won the Civil War" as a summary rather than a full-length novel. The concept certainly has enough merit to justify a longer treatment. Nevertheless, Kantor's engaging writing style is on full display, holding the reader's interest through sections that would not be out of place in a military history textbook.

Slavery and its aftermath arguably constitute the central narrative of the United States, a narrative whose repercussions are still playing out today. A country founded on the premise of liberty and justice for all has often fallen short of fulfilling that ideal for all of its inhabitants. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, "If the South Had Won the Civil War" is a fascinating addition to this discussion.


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If The South Had Won The Civil War MacKinlay Kantor Dan Nance Harry Turtledove 9780312869496 Books Reviews

Harry Turtledove, who wrote about ten books continuing the history of and later wars between the United and Confederate States, wrote the introduction to this edition of MacKinlay Kantor's "If the South had Won the Civil War" to acknowledge his debt to Kantor and the extent to which Kantor influenced him. However, Kantor's vision of what would have happened in the twentieth century diverges sharply from Turtledove's. Perhaps the most important difference is that instead of the Civil War ending in 1862 with an Anglo-French guarantee of Southern independence (Turtledove), the Civil War in Kantor's vision ends in 1863 with overwhelming Confederate military victory. Because the Confederacy is not drawn into a European system of alliances, there are NO further wars between the US and CSA, and on the hundredth anniversary of Fort Sumter, the nations reunify.

Frankly, I find Turtledove's version far more plausible. The animosity engendered by the war was such that the US and CSA would have taken opposite sides of every international question, including the World Wars as Turtledove foresaw but Kantor blissfully ignores (having the nations fight on the same side). A Confederate victory in the Civil War would have been a guarantee that the wars Americans so love to fight would all have taken place on this continent until inevitably the larger United States conquered the Confederacy and reintegrated it. The only thing that could have staved this off would have been Confederate acquisition of the atomic bomb.

They are both wrong about the abolition of slavery in the Confederacy occurring in the 1880s. The South would NEVER have voluntarily given up their slaves (except perhaps by genocide). The South seceded in 1860-61 because it perceived this as its last chance to PRESERVE slavery. In fact, there would have had to be 45 free states to pass the Thirteenth Amendment over the objection of the 15 slave states in the Union in 1860, none of which was going to free its slaves anytime soon. Ben Winters' book "Underground Airlines" is perhaps the most realistic follow-on to an alternate history of the Civil War in which the war is avoided altogether (through the pre-inauguration assassination of Lincoln) but in the 21st century, four states still practice slavery. Even when the Confederate Congress finally agreed to arm African-Americans in early 1865, it improbably insisted they REMAIN slaves. That's how racist the Confederacy was. Kantor's vision of the nations eventually coming back together peacefully with full rights for African-Americans is utopian nonsense.

However, he has a good imagination, which is why I still give the book three stars. He clearly did his research, giving the date every other slave empire of the nineteenth century started gradual emancipation. (I had no idea Spain did so in 1870 and that will affect the alternate history of the Civil War I am writing.) The peaceful secession of Texas from the CSA in 1878 is an interesting twist and is portrayed as having "solved" what was a vexatious issue in the Confederacy of the 1870s, states' rights (but Kantor should have said more about what he means by this). He makes up other histories of the postwar Americas to cite from and other Presidents of the US and CSA. The interesting question is, if they were both Presidents of their respective countries during World War I, how did Wilson keep Theodore Roosevelt from going into the war before he (Wilson) was ready? That would make a good book in itself. At any rate, if you're determined to read every alternate history of the Civil War, start with "If the South Had Won. . ." If not, you can skip it.
This small volume marks a return to the subject of the Civil War, that Kantor had explored so thoroughly in his sprawling novel Andersonville. Instead of a dramatization of history, here Kantor embarks on what author Harry Turtledove describes in the preface as possibly the first example of alternative history. Turtledove compares it to science fiction, with the distinction that while science fiction imagines a future based on developments in the present, Kantor's alternative history of the Civil War, imagines a different present based on changes to key events in the past. Written from the vantage point of 1960 (when the book was first published), Kantor describes a very different history of the preceding century, following from alternative events that led to a very different outcome.

***SPOILERS***

The details of this alternate history are astonishing, although possibly not surprising, as Kantor touches on relations between the United and Confederate States, the further secession of Texas, and combined efforts in the two World Wars. Slavery, as it turns out, was abolished within a few decades, and while African-Americans did not achieve full equality, they also did not suffer through Jim Crow, lynching, and other forms of overt repression, based on the theory that since emancipation was not forced on the slave states, the resulting animosity never developed. Kantor, unfortunately, spends little time on the westward expansion, and does not mention the treatment of the Native Americans, other than describing the Confederate annexation of Indian Territory. We also hear of "Russian America," which eventually poses an existential threat to the three American countries, but not much beyond that. The book ends on a hopeful note of reunification. It's telling to contrast Kantor's positive outlook with that in Kevin Wilmott's mocumentary CSA The Confederate States of America, that imagines a worldwide expansion of racism and slavery that follows a Confederate victory.

According to the afterword, Kantor wrote this book at the behest of Look Magazine executive editor Daniel Mich, who urged him to take a break from the novel he was working on at the time, Spirit Lake, a story of the events around the last attack by the Lakota on settlers in Iowa in 1857. Kantor provides an explanation for the choices made in his alternate Civil War; apparently, the pivotal history-changing events came very close to actually taking place. It's possible that his eagerness to get back to "Spirit Lake" led him to write "If the South Had Won the Civil War" as a summary rather than a full-length novel. The concept certainly has enough merit to justify a longer treatment. Nevertheless, Kantor's engaging writing style is on full display, holding the reader's interest through sections that would not be out of place in a military history textbook.

Slavery and its aftermath arguably constitute the central narrative of the United States, a narrative whose repercussions are still playing out today. A country founded on the premise of liberty and justice for all has often fallen short of fulfilling that ideal for all of its inhabitants. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, "If the South Had Won the Civil War" is a fascinating addition to this discussion.