A Past of Possibilities: A History of What Could Have Been

by Quentin Deluermoz, Pierre Singaravelou, Stephen W. Sawyer (Translator)

Overview

An exploration of hypothetical turning points in history from Ancient Greece to September 11

What if history, as we know it, had run another course? Touching on alternate histories of the future and the past, or uchronias, A Past of Possibilities encourages deeper consideration of watershed moments in the course of history. Wide-ranging in scope, it examines the Boxer Rebellion in China, the 1848 revolution in France, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and integrates science fiction, history, historiography, sociology, anthropology, and film. In probing the genre of literature and history that is fascinated with hypotheticals surrounding key points in history, Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre Singaravélou reach beyond a mere reimagining of history, exploring the limits and potentials of the futures past. From the most bizarre fiction to serious scientific hypothesis, they provide a survey of the uses of counterfactual histories, methodological issues on the possible in social sciences, and practical proposals for using alternate histories in research and the wider public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300227543
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Quentin Deluermoz is professor of history at the University of Paris. Pierre Singaravélou is professor of history at King’s College London and at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne. Stephen W. Sawyer is professor of history at the American University of Paris.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Dark Energy of History vii

Introduction: On the Edge of History 1

Part 1 Inquiry

1 In Thucydides' Wake: An Ancient and Unknown Genealogy 9

2 From Delhi to Vienna: Counterfactual History across the World 27

3 From Pterodactyls to Piccadilly Circus: Uchronias of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 44

4 The Test of the Social (and Natural) Sciences 59

Part 2 Decoding

5 The Historical Imagination and Counterfactual Approaches 83

6 Causal Inference and Counterfactual Reasoning 105

Interlude: The Dominion of Facts in the Social Sciences 129

7 The Past Futures of Others: Counterfactual Reasoning and Historicity 132

8 Political Uses of Counterfactual History 150

Part 3 Experiments

9 Testing Empire: Revisiting Western Domination through Counterfactualism and Possible Futures 181

10 "Today, Only the Language of Dreams Can Translate History": Futures of Possibility, Fear, and Hope in 1848 213

11 The Console and the Chalkboard: Replaying History, a "Serious Game"? 247

12 Writing History Together: A Reflexive and Participative Historical Essay (II/II/II, Grenoble, France) 270

Conclusion: Becomings in the World 299

Notes 307

Index 365

Editorial Reviews

Our political activities are based on the presumption that choices matter.  But historians rarely consider roads not taken and the chain of consequences that a different direction at a crucial turning point could have had.  Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre Singaravélou push us to pose such questions, and hence to reconsider how we think about history.”—Frederick Cooper, author of Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference:  Historical Perspectives
 

“In this wonderful book, Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre Singaravelou show "counterfactual history" has itself a long and rich history. Ever since Tite-Live, Edward Gibbon, Louis Geoffroy and Niall Ferguson, social actors and intellectuals have been describing some of the many historical paths and bifurcations which did not happen. The book offers a fascinating analysis of this body of discourse, its uses and misuses. A must-read by two of the most innovative historians of their generation.”—Thomas Piketty, author of Capital and Ideology
 

“Impeccably documented, A Past of Possibilities provides an impressively broad survey of the usages of counterfactual reasoning in various disciplines, weaves epistemological reflections with critical assessments, spells out methodological recommendations, and outlines how these can inform the teaching of history in various settings: a remarkable and multi-faceted achievement.”— Ivan Ermakoff, author of Ruling Oneself Out: A Theory of Collective Abdications

From the Publisher