If the South Had Won the Civil War

By: MacKinlay Kantor, Harry Turtledove - introduction

Narrated by: William Dufris

Just a touch here and a tweak there....

MacKinlay Kantor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and master storyteller, shows us how the South could have won the Civil War, how two small shifts in history (as we know it) in the summer of 1863 could have turned the tide for the Confederacy. What would have happened: to the Union, to Abraham Lincoln, to the people of the North and South, to the world?  

If the South Had Won the Civil War originally appeared in Look Magazine nearly half a century ago. It immediately inspired a deluge of letters and telegrams from astonished readers and became an American classic overnight. Published in book form soon after, Kantor's masterpiece has been unavailable for a decade. Now, this much-requested classic is once again available for a new generation of listeners.  

It all begins on that fateful afternoon of Tuesday, May 12, 1863, when a deplorable equestrian accident claims the life of General Ulysses S. Grant....

©1960 MacKinlay Kantor; Renewed copyright 1988 by The Estate of MacKinlay Kantor; "An Historical Inversion" copyright 1967 by MacKinlay Kantor; Renewed copyright 1995 by The Estate of MacKinlay Kantor; Introduction copyright 2001 by Harry N. Turtledove (P)2019 Tantor

Fun read

I have been reading alternate history for a long time. This was right up there.

Alternative history - What If?

An imaginative alternative to the reality of the civil war. The book read like an historical account. It not only changed the outcome of the civil war but also project “would be” history for the next century. Very intriguing and not what I thought it was going to be. My fault for pre-judging the book!

Fascinating, Enjoyable Alternate History

What would have happened had the Confederate States prevailed and the principle of secession been affirmed by victory? There would, no doubt, have been far more social and political implications in the second half of the 20th century than this work, written in the middle of the century, could explore, but this is a well written, enjoyable thought experiment in how history might have been different.

tantalizing conjecture

on the one hand, slavery, a necessity of all past civilizations, the mainstay of the American South finds new life in this saga of what would have happened if the South had won the Civil War. Because of two key events: the death of General Ulysses Grant, and the defeat of the Union forces in Washington DC. Thank God, this never happened.

Why is slavery no longer in vogue? The Industrial Revolution is one reason. Why employ slaves to do dangerous and hard labor when machines can do it much more efficiently and with much fewer lost lives?

The endgame of the book: the South moves it's Capitol to Washington DC, and the North moves its Capitol to Ohio! They coexist.

A tale that paved the way for alternate history...

This is one of the earliest entries into the genre of alternate history, and helped to serve as an inspiration for many writers that came after; not least of which was Harry Turtledove himself. That said, don't expect high levels of detail concerning how this timeline differs from our own. Basically, the Confederacy secedes from the Union, Texas secedes from the Confederacy, and all three work as amiable partners in every global conflict that follows before finally joining together again. Not the genre's best entry, but worth one listen at least.