President Gore and Other Things That Never Happened
Duncan Brack
Politico’s, 326 pp, £14.99
Counterfactual history deals with scenarios that never actually happened, for example this book’s account of the election of Al Gore as president of the United States in 2000.
It is the follow-up to the successful book, Prime Minister Portillo, edited by Duncan Brack and Iain Dale and published in 2003. Here, Brack has commissioned 19 new short chapters by various writers, speculating on subjects such as the Great Reform Act falling at its second reading in 1831, Robert Peel, Franz Ferdinand and Yitzhak Rabin all cheating their famous deaths, and Michael Howard becoming Conservative leader in 1997.
The editor’s introduction offers a strong defence of the exercise as a different way of casting light on historical events, with the context in which the protagonists operated further illuminated. The book flits between serious historical study, as in Robert Waller’s essay on the 1903 electoral pact between the Liberal and Labour parties, and outrageous but entertaining stocking filler. Michael Howard getting William Hague paralytic and humbling Jeremy Paxman, on his way to securing the Conservative leadership in 1997, falls into the latter category.
The chapter demonstrates the problem with the form, especially for more recent history: not many would agree with Mark Garnett’s portrayal of a reformed Howard eschewing right-wing opportunism at every turn, resulting in an improved 2001 result for the Tories. Historians and political pundits have enough trouble agreeing on what did actually happen, let alone what did not
Their first book Prime Minister Portillo and things that never happened while Entertaining to me just did’nt Ring True (Portillo could have won In 2001)’I Beleive it would have taken Two terms in oppostition for him to have become Prime minister by 2005′ had The Liberals not Been wiped out in 1918 Churchill would’t have defected from them something else I can’t agree on and Lastly Had John Smith Live He would Have Won A LAndslide in 1996( I Believe he would have narrowaly Lost) This book from What i have read similarily says Eurpoe wouldnt have had War But would Have Been Divided On Ferdinand Not being Shot .Saying that there deserves to Be A Third Book Had Gaitskill lived, had Lord MountBatton had A Coup against Wilson ,Had Thatcher stayed on in !990( Had Howe Not Resigned I believe it would have been a hung Parliament) and My Personal Favourite Had Tony Blair sued The Spewctator for saying He cashed in on the Queen Mums death