How different would history have been if Abraham Lincoln had avoided the gunman’s bullet or Julius Caesar had escaped the blades of his assassins? What if instead of living to die a peaceful death, Charles De Gaulle had been assassinated or Oliver Cromwell or the Duke of Wellington had died in battle? What if Franklin Roosevelt had been overthrown by a cabal of businessmen or Chairman Mao by rivals in the Chinese Communist Party? How would have history altered if George Washington had died of cold at Valley Forge or Josef Stalin of typhus in Baku? The book considers Alexander the Great becoming conqueror of Western Europe and Indira Gandhi as dictator of India. What if Otto von Bismarck had remained a regional politician and Benito Mussolini stayed a left-wing journalist? Relatively minor changes could have led to vastly different outcomes.

NOTE: 'Other Lives' DOES NOT contain stories. It has chapters analysing different potential outcomes in history. It is closest in style to the ‘what if?’ collections edited by Peter Tsouras, Robert Crowley, Duncan Brack, Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts. It is suggested that you check them out if you are uncertain whether this one is the sort of book you are looking for.

In 20 chapters, Alexander Rooksmoor looks at how different the world would have been as a result of different outcomes in the lives of different individuals: if their careers had been longer, shorter or simply more mundane; if contrary to what happened in our world, they had survived the attack of assassins or became a victim. The book gives background detail to allow the reader to judge the impact of the ‘what if?’ changes, but does not seek to provide detailed biographies. Rather it intends, through focused analysis, to provoke debate about how different the world might have been through alterations to the lives of particular individuals.

Alexander Rooksmoor has been author of numerous books of what if? analysis and fiction. His books draw on twenty years’ experience in researching and teaching history and in exploring and discussing a whole range of ‘what if?’s.