Over the past few decades, alternate history has emerged as an increasingly popular sub-genre of science fiction. Through it, an ever-growing number of authors and fans have postulated the different turns that history might have taken, often because of relatively minor circumstances. Most writers use this to establish a divergent setting for fictional works, in which characters come to terms with the very different worlds that emerged as a result.

In this respect Robert Sobel offers something different. Rather than develop an alternate history setting for a work of fiction, he created something far more elaborate – a thoroughly articulated timeline of events resulting from a British victory in the Battle of Saratoga. From it, he envisages an American Revolution that ends in a British victory and the emergence of two different countries – the British-spawned Confederation of North America and a separate state founded by the surviving revolutionaries that evolves into the United States of Mexico.

In developing his alternate world, Sobel presents it in the form of a “nonfiction” text rather than that of a novel. This is a considerable undertaking; instead of simply drafting a setting, he has to develop an increasingly intricate sequence of events, all of which must be plausible in explaining broader developments that took place over the following two centuries. Adding to the challenge is that he does this within the context of a narrative “history” without the benefit of the novelist’s devices of character and dialogue to maintain the reader’s interest.

All of this makes Sobel’s achievement an impressive one. Not only does he present a plausible and fully realized alternative to the history with which readers will be familiar, he does so in a way that can keep a reader’s attention. In many respects, it reads as a satire of a true nonfiction work, complete with footnotes citing nonexistent books and fake disputes between academics who never lived. It serves as just one more strata of a richly-layered work, one that may not be as exciting of a read as the works of authors like Harry Turtledove but one that can envelop the reader in a way that few other works of the genre are able. ( )

1274. For Want of a Nail . . . If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga, by Robert Sobel (25 May 1974) This book is written telling what would happen if Burgoyne had won at Saratoga in 1777. It changes the whole world--none of the persons of today are around. I read it rather skimmingly because it is all nonsense. ( )

Spins out all of modern American history after Burgoyne's 1777 victory, right down to 1969. The starting premise is improbable enough (Clinton moves up river to relieve Burgoyne), but it gets sillier with each passing decade - e.g.:
1) The capital of North Amerca would NOT have been placed in Pittsburgh, not without mechanized transportation. (Ever try to GET to Pittsburgh?)
2) Slavery - the issue that broke the Union - is resolved peacefully a few pages dealing with the 1840s: the solution is simply to buy out the slavers.
3) Despite the entirely different world economy and consequent differing set of global powers, a parallel "WWII" is fought in the 1940s anyway.

And so forth.

Obsessively detailed, but increasingly loopy and unconnected from reality as the years roll by; well before the second half of the 19th century, you're reading pure fantasy that has been pretty arbitrarily determined.

In short: a necessary landmark in the genre, but essentially unreadable. ( )