alternative histories
Reimagined past events
Alternative histories are fictional narratives that imagine how events might have unfolded if history had taken a different course.
The genre typically hinges on a single divergence point: What if the South had won the Civil War?
What if the Nazis had conquered Britain?
Also called alternate histories or counterfactuals, these works explore how small changes might cascade into radically different worlds.
- counterfactualContrary-to-fact supposition
- what-ifHypothetical scenario query
- parallelEquidistant at all points
- timelineOrdered display of events
- divergenceSeparation from common origin
steampunk · dieselpunk · Confederate · assassination · branching · fork in the road · speculative · revisionist · divergent · multiverse · sliding doors moment · time-travel · paradox · reimagined · worldbuilding
alternative historiesrecorded history
Past preserved through documentation
academic history · historical record · historiography · primary sources · chronicles
alternative historiesofficial history
Government-endorsed version of events
alternative historiesspeculative fiction
Genre of imagined realities
futurism · science fiction · prophecy · prognostication · futurology
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