Across 1400 years and six continents (sorry, Australia), Impossible Histories examines pivotal moments in history from both sides--what happened and what would have happened had things gone differently. The results are by turns strange, hilarious, tragic...and always fascinating. Imagine a world in which...- Hitler builds a thousand-year Reich- Columbus gets driven from the Americas by mounted knights- Robespierre decapitates Caesar Augustus- The Inca Empire has an air force- Jimmy Carter presses the Button These brave new worlds are merely our own, familiar world--if something small had happened differently. We're all one elephant away from peace in the Middle East, one knife thrust away from nuclear Armageddon. This book examines twenty pivotal moments in history, asks what if?..., and drags the answers kicking and screaming into the light. History--factual and counterfactual has never been so entertaining. A whirlwind ride through history as it never happened--but could have.