This is a collection of essays by serious historians who have plotted "virtual histories" based on the premise that one key event happened differently than in reality. (one complaint: too centered on the English-speaking world) Convincing arguments that Charles I had everything going right for him, that the American Revolution was a sheer fluke that almost nobody wanted, that Britain should have allowed Germany to win the First World War, and that the Soviet state still had many decades of life ahead of it when Gorbachev arrived, are presented with gusto. Other essays are not really counterfactual at all, and should not have been included. The editor's introduction is also too long and contains a lot of ranting about teleology and contingency equations--ignore it. Despite these holes, the book is compulsive reading for history fans.