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The Ifs of History

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The Ifs of History (1907)
by Joseph Edgar Chamberlin
4265467The Ifs of History1907Joseph Edgar Chamberlin

THE
IFS OF HISTORY


PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY

Copyright, 1907,
by
Howard E. Altemus

CONTENTS


Preface vii
I. If Themistocles Had Not Beaten Aristides in an Athenian Election 13
II. If the Moors Had Won the Battle of Tours 21
III. If King Ethelred of England Had Not Married the Norman Emma 30
IV. If Columbus Had Kept His Straight Course Westward 37
V. If Queen Elizabeth Had Left a Son or Daughter 47
VI. If the Philarmonia Had Not Given Concerts at Vicenza 56
VII. If the Spanish Armada Had Sailed at Its Appointed Time 64
VIII. If Champlain Had Tarried in Plymouth Bay 71
IX. If Charles II Had Accepted the Kingship of Virginia 79
X. If Admiral Penn Had Persisted in Disowning His Son William 91
XI. If the Boy George Washington Had Become a British Midshipman 99
XII. If Alexander Hamilton Had Not Written About the Hurricane 107
XIII. If Lafayette Had Held the French Reign of Terror in Check 114
XIV. If Gilbert Livingston Had Not Voted New York into the Union 121
XV. If the Pirate Jean Lafitte Had Joined the British at New Orleans 129
XVI. If James Macdonnel Had Not Closed the Gates of Hugomont Castle 138
XVII. If Abraham Lincoln's Father Had Moved Southward, Not Northward 150
XVIII. If Skipper Jennings Had Not Rescued Certain Shipwrecked Japanese 160
XIX. If Orsini's Bomb Had Not Failed to Destroy Napoleon III 170
XX. If President James Buchanan Had Enforced the Law in November, 1860 176
XXI. If the Confederates Had Marched on Washington After Bull Run 185
XXII. If the Confederate States Had Purchased the East India Company's Fleet in 1861 194


This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1935, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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