By Jean C.
If The Allies Had Fallen, edited by Dennis Showalter and Harold Deutsch, is a collection of essays exploring various ways that World War Two could have differed from how history actually played out. The book reads like a history text book; dull at some points, page turning the next. Don't mistake this change in pace for an offsetter. Rather, the book's variance allows the reader to take their time, stopping to read other books or simply manage their daily life.
The main attraction in this book is the detail. Each author, for there are many, takes the time to explain the historic background to the senerio, what would play out, and how this would effect the rest of the war. For example, in exploring the Japanese choice to avoid a second strike on Pearl Harbour, author Edward Drea lays out the details of potential ship movements, air strikes, gunners' reactions and the realities of the Pacific war. Then the actual attack is explained as it could have happened, and the world of history class drops away to bombers dropping behind, burning oil tankers, anti-aircraft flak and missing comrads. What the reader knows to be true is laid behind in a world war that could have been.
The book's many authors does have it's drawbacks. Styles change and details shift. There is a variance in how much time is spent on facts verses speculation, something that draws away from the purpose of the book. Additionally, it can be hard, at times, to figure out if one is reading could have beens or did happens.
Which, I suppose, is the purpose of the book in the first place.
If The Allies Had Fallen Sixty Alternative Scenarios of World War II. Edited by Dennis E. Showalter & Harold C. Deutsch. 287 pages.
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