History Main / AlternateHistory

* Joanna Russ's ''The Female Man'' takes place over several alternate worlds, one in which Hitler was assassinated in 1936, World War II never happened and the Depression never ended, one in which there is a literal "war of the sexes" going on in which men and women live in different nations and one in which all men were killed in a plague and women reproduce parthenogenetically. The last one is presented as a MarySuetopia. [[Or perhaps a CrapsacharrineWorld as it's hinted that the disease was not natural but a deliberate murder of the men.]]

* WinstonChurchill penned a short story in 1932 called "If Lee Had Not Won The Battle of Gettysburg" -- narrated by a historian in an alternate history where the South won the American Civil War. This was published in an anthology of such stories called "If It Had Happened Otherwise". Other speculations included the Islamic state of Granada surviving in southern Spain, forming a long-lasting alliance with Spain's other great enemy, England, and ultimately sending troops to the trenches in WorldWarOne.

* RayBradbury's ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'' is another example of alternate history by time-travel; [[ButterflyOfDoom stepping on a butterfly]] millions of years in the past alters the outcome of a presidential election (along with other details, though [[InSpiteOfANail not as many as you'd think]].)

** Further complicating this is that the novel features its own AlternateHistory [[ShowWithinAShow novel]], ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'', whose plot involved the Axis losing WorldWarII, with the post-war world dominated by a cold war between America and... the British Empire.

* HarryTurtledove has written dozens of alternate history novels. His best known include the "{{Timeline-191}}" (or ''How Few Remain'') series, which begins with the South winning the American Civil War in 1862, and follows this timeline through World War II and beyond; and the "{{Worldwar}}" series, wherein World War II is interrupted by an alien invasion by an empire of reptilians who have never before encountered mammals, and whose technology progresses so slowly that they're shocked to find that humans aren't using the same technology as their probe showed them using 1,000 years ago.

** The novel that made Turtledove's reputation is ''TheGunsOfTheSouth'', in which South African white supremacists have stolen a time machine and, looking for a future ally, supply the American Confederacy with thousands of [=AK47s=], [[TimelineAlteringMacGuffin superior tactical knowledge about the Union's deployments]] and nitroglycerin pills for General Lee's heart condition.
** ''TheTwoGeorges'' (co-written with the actor Richard Dreyfuss), has a US that never left the British Empire. Gun crime is unheard of, Los Angeles is "New Liverpool", [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airships]] are the fastest civilian transport, and Sir Martin Luther King is the Governor-General of the North American Union.
** ''RuledBritannia'', has the Spanish Armada succeeding in conquering England, though they are overthrown by a revolt inspired by Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

** ''In The Presence of Mine Enemies'' posits a world in which the U.S. remained isolationist throughout WWII, and Germany defeated all the major European powers. World War III ends with the [[NoKillLikeOverkill nuclear pacification of the US]]. Set in the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2009]], the book follows a sect of hidden Jews as they struggle to survive during a time of political upheaval. Scenery includes: a Japanese empire, the radioactive remains of the Liberty Bell in a German Museum, and a Nazi version of "Film/TheProducers" that involves a horrible play about Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. Notable for its realistic presentation of these, alternative-universe, modern Nazis as being good people with a bad upbringing. And the ending [[spoiler: bears no resemblance at all to the fall of the Soviet Union. Really, honest. Well, maybe a little]]

** In yet another version of WorldWarII, ''Hitler's War'' posits what would happen if the Treaty of Munich had fallen through and Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938. Long story short, [[spoiler: the Germans expend so much energy invading the well-fortified Czechs that they fail to take Paris once they invade France. Meanwhile Stalin jumps the gun and invades Poland, bringing the Poles firmly onto the side of the Germans. Japan takes this opportunity to attack Siberia, while an unfortunate accident involving a passenger liner starts America thinking about joining the Allies. As of ''The Big Switch'', Churchill has died in a traffic accident, the UK and France have concluded a ''status quo ante bellum'' armistice with Germany and have actually joined the ''Reich'' in its war against the Soviet Union, and Japan has attacked the United States...but in this timeline, the US was actually ready at Pearl Harbor and inflicted severe losses on the attacking Japanese.]]

** ''Himmler's War'', in which Hitler is accidentally killed shortly after the invasion of Normandy, Himmler takes over and Germay's professional military is given a much freer hand.

* OrsonScottCard's ''PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'' reveals that our timeline is an AlternateHistory created by time travel. In the previous history, Christopher Columbus started a new crusade against Constantinople instead of sailing for the new world. This give the Native American Tlaxcalan empire enough time to develop iron-working, take over North America, then successfully invade Europe after gaining the secrets of firearms from captured Portuguese sailors. They eventually sent back a recording to convince Christopher Columbus to discover the new world, so that the Tlaxcalan empire would be stopped, creating our timeline. In ''our'' future, this is discovered and several agents are sent back, creating a ''third'' timeline where the Native Americans unite and visit Europe in peace (trading instead of invading) with no colonialism.

* ThomasHarlan:

* John Birmingham's ''Literature/AxisOfTime'' series combines this with TimeTravel by exploring the consequences of a modern carrier group (including Prince Harry as the commander of its SAS detachment) being transported from TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture to the [[WorldWarII Battle of Midway]].

* The ''WildCards'' setting deviates from history around 1946, when the titular alien virus falls on UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, killing many and giving some humans superpowers. Juan and Eva Peron are deposed by an American fighting force, a superpowered Islamic militant unites the Arabic countries under a caliphate, and Buddy Holly never takes the fateful flight with the Big Bopper and ends up a washed-up has-been [[spoiler: who manages to literally tear himself to pieces and then re-build himself on-stage during one story, becoming a modern-day shamanic figure]].

* Naomi Novik plays with the speculative fiction version of this trope in her ''{{Temeraire}}'' series, which asks such questions as "What if dragons existed and were used as early aircraft -- early as in becoming necessary weapons of the great powers by the time of the Napoleonic Wars?"

* Creator/NeilGaiman's short story ''Literature/AStudyInEmerald'' is a re-imagining of ''[[Literature/SherlockHolmes A Study in Scarlet]]'' in an alternate Earth where Creator/HPLovecraft's [[CthulhuMythos famous]] [[EldritchAbomination monsters]] took over centuries ago and now constitute the ruling caste.

* JohnScalzi's humorous short story ''[[http://www.subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter2007/fiction-missives-from-possible-futures-1-alternate-history-search-results-by-john-scalzi/ Alternate History Search Results]]'' explores the different outcomes of not just ''when'' Hitler is killed, but ''how''.

** ''The Lucky Strike,'' a short story by Robinson, takes place in a WW2 wherein the Enola Gay and its crew were lost before the bombing of Hiroshima. The War still ends as OTL [[spoiler: but the decision to drop the Bomb ''away from'' Hiroshima ultimately leads to a premature end of the nuclear arms race in the 1950s. MAD is never conceived.]]

* In Creator/JoWalton's ''Literature/SmallChange'' novels, ''Farthing'', ''Ha'Penny'', and ''Half A Crown'', Britain made peace with Hitler in 1941. The first two books are set in 1949. The Reich still exists and controls all of continental Europe, though they're still fighting the Russians. A political cadre called the Farthing Set takes over the British government and starts heading down the slippery slope to totalitarianism, justifying [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the restriction of civil liberties]] by claiming the country is in danger from Jewish and communist terrorists. The US isn't a major player at all, having never recovered from TheGreatDepression, but there are occasional mentions of "President Lindbergh".

** ''TheDraka'' series (aka ''The Domination'') is about a brutal, expansionist, enslaving empire of depraved but ruthless {{Nietzsche Wannabe}}s conquering the Earth.
** The ''{{Emberverse}}'' series, where in 1998 "the Change" strikes worldwide, sending Nantucket Island into the past, and causing electricity, gunpowder and steam engines to stop working.
** Related is the ''IslandInTheSeaOfTime'' series, featuring the Nantucket Island which vanished from the ''Emberverse'' making its way in the Bronze Age. Technology works just fine there.

*** ''ThePeshawarLancers'' is set in a world where an asteroid hits the earth during the Victorian era and the struggle to survive [[SteamPunk locks the dominant culture technologically and culturally in the 19th century]].

** In ''TheLordsOfCreation'' series, [[spoiler: thanks to SufficientlyAdvanced aliens]] Mars and Venus are habitable and in fact inhabited by offshoots of humanity.

** In the same Ring of Fire universe as ''1632'' is ''Time Spike'' which sends a modern maximum security prison [[spoiler: along with 19th century Ammerican settlers, Spanish conquistadors and various groups of Indians]] into the Age of Dinosaurs.
** In the Literature/BelisariusSeries, which he co-wrote with DavidDrake, 6th century AD history is turned on its head by the arrival of two time travelers from the far future. One of the arrivals is a sentient crystal sent to aid the titular Roman general against a future traveler engaging in a genocidal campaign on the Indian subcontinent bent on world domination, seeking to generate a "pure" race, instead of the energy beings that mankind had evolved into in the crystal's time.
* The ''[[TheQueensThief Attolia]]'' series of books occur in a world in which Ancient Greek civilization has persisted into what would be the Renaissance in our world. People still worship a version of the Greek pantheon, and there are several rival city-states/kingdoms. However, they have developed many technologies that the Greeks didn't have, like rifles and pocket watches.
* Randall Garrett's ''Literature/LordDarcy'' series takes place in a modern day Europe with a balance of power between an Anglo-French Empire and the Kingdom of Poland, as well as the widespread use of magic. The divergence from our own world? Instead of dying at the siege of Chaluz, [[RichardTheLionHeart Richard I (the Lionhearted)]] survived and returned to England to rule. The general technological level in this alternate Europe is pretty much equivalent to the late nineteenth century of our own timeline, owing to the fact that scientific resources have been applied to the study and development of magical technology.
* One of the originals is L Sprague [=DeCamp's=] ''Literature/LestDarknessFall'', about a modern man going back to 6th century Rome and attempting to reestablish civilization, as well as combating Goth and Byzantine armies.
** Also [=DeCamp's=] ''The Wheels of If'' novelette in which a man from our world is sent into the body of the person he would have been in a world where Pelagius' vision of Christianity beat out Augustine's and compounded by Charles Martel losing the Battle of Tours.

* Alan Goldsher's "Paul is Undead" is what if John Lennon, [=Paul McCartney=] and George Harrison were zombies and Ringo Starr was a ninja.

* One of Creator/TerryPratchett's earlier works, ''{{Strata}}'', has a few divergences, [[spoiler:Remus wins instead of Romulus, hence the Reman empire]], [[spoiler:the Vikings stayed in America, calling it Valhalla and conquering Europe in the 1300s]] and controversially [[spoiler:the Earth was created old, with fossils and everything]].

* Cyril M. Kornbluth's novel ''NotThisAugust'' was written as being TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but could be read as an alternate history in which China and the Soviet Union take over the United States.
* Creator/RobertSilverberg wrote a number of stories in a universe in which Rome never fell, taking place over the course of several thousand years, and collected in a book called ''RomaEterna''.

* JamesHerbert's ''48'' is set in a London which is almost uninhabited due to a plague released by the Germans in the last stages of WWII which proved more effective than they anticipated and killed most humans except for those with AB type blood.
* Lance Parkin's "[[FactionParadox Warlords of Utopia]]" features a universe where Rome never fell creating alliances with other similar universes (including one that was Amazonian and another where the Dinosaurs never became extinct) going to war against multiple universes where the Nazis won and created an interuniversal Axis empire. The Romans won because the Nazis forgot the importance of training their soldiers to fight someone with a sword and a (kevlar lined) shield. Throw in some steampunk and you've a very fun story.

* In the world of ''TheBigOne'' and its sequels by Stuart Slade a legal, bloodless coup by Lord Halifax against Churchill leads to Britain opting out of WWII in 1940 leading to, among other things, its lasting until 1947 and ending with the United States nuking Germany.
** He also authored ''TheSalvationWar'', where on 11 January 2008 [[spoiler:God reveals his existence and that of Hell to say "the Pearly Gates are closed, you're all off to Hell when you die to be tortured by Satan's minions"]]... which to say the least [[RageAgainstTheHeavens is not taken well]].
* SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/SeekersOfTheSky'' duology takes place in a world where {{Jesus}} Christ was killed as a baby during the Massacre of the Innocents. Despite Jesus pleading God to allow him to return to Earth, God instead leaves another baby on Mary's doorstep. This child becomes God's Stepson, known to the people as the Redeemer, and God also grants him the Word, a divine power to put any number of objects into another dimention known as the Cold. Using this power, the Redeemer becomes the next Roman Emperor but eventually grows disillusioned with humanity upon the realization that humans will never give up on war. He then orders his disciples to tie him to a pole (as opposed to a cross), which he takes into the Cold along with himself and most of the world's iron (in attempt to prevent future wars). The novels take place 2000 years later in a world where iron is treated as gold, firearms are a rarity afforded to the nobility, only a select few know the Word, and the World Wars never happened.

* The novel Literature/{{Leviathan}} by Scott Westerfeld shows what might have happened if Darwin had discovered Genetic engineering and tanks had been invented in the Industrial Revolution using mechanical legs instead of treads, showing the start of WorldWarI between OrgainicTechnology using 'Darwinists' (the Entente Powers) and SteamPunk 'Clankers' (The Central Powers).
** While this scenario is not particularly likely, an unopened copy of Gregor Mendel's paper on genetics was found in Darwin's study after his death. Darwin had tried and failed to come up with an effective mechanism for evolutionary change, and yet the answer had been sitting right in front of him the whole time.

* Literature/NineteenFortyEtSiLaFranceAvaitContinueLaGuerre a.k.a. France Fights On is about an alternate WW2 in which France evacuates its army to North Africa rather than sign an armistice with Germany in June 1940.

* Sophia [=McDougall=]'s book ''{{Romanitas}}'' is set in the modern day in a world where the Roman Empire never fell. It now spans most of the globe, with many countries having different names and borders based on Latin names. There are still slaves, crucifixion and worship of the old gods, but they also have televisions and telephones (called longscreens and longdictors, respectively).
* An early example is Creator/MurrayLeinster's 1934 novella ''Sidewise In Time'', in which an unknown phenomenon switches random chunks of the Earth's surface with pieces from alternate histories, leading to Vikings and Roman legions appearing in different American cities, Native Americans who have never seen a European, and a region where the South won the American Civil War.

* DaleBrown books have touches of this. For example, the mess with Libya in ''Wings of Fire'' started when apparent BigBad Zuwayy carried out a coup against the RealLife ruler [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi Gaddafi]] in the backstory, written well before Gaddafi was deposed IRL.

* In Tim Doyle's ''GoMutants'', a parody that melds TeenWangst 50s movies and 50s sci-fi movies, aliens and humans went to war in the 50s resulting in four US states and France being wiped out. Among other things Nixon won in 1960 and was a three-termer and Ronald Reagan is Vice-President in 72 (when the story occurs).

* Philip Roth's ''ThePlotAgainstAmerica'' features an alternate history in which an isolationist and anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election.

* The ''CelestialEmpire'' books by Chris Roberson take place in an alternate history where the Chinese rose to dominance during the Middle Ages. They, alongside their enemies the Aztec, are the dominant cultures in the world in present day. And there are space ships.
* ''Time and Again'' by Jack Finney plays with this. There is evidence, in his universe, of alternate histories: a newspaper from 1916 with no evidence that [[WorldWarOne the world is in the midst of war]]; a man who has a campaign button for JFK's second term; an old man who swears he saw the ''Titanic'' pull into New York harbor when he was 12 years old. There are a select few people who, with special training, can travel back in time. They attempt first to avert the war, and then to stop the ''Titanic'' from sinking, and fail in both attempts. In fact, their slight alteration of the ''Titanic's'' course is what caused the ship to hit the iceberg. Oops.

* ''TheDifferenceEngine'' by Creator/WilliamGibson and Bruce Sterling, shows a world in which Charles Babbage succeeded in developing his Difference Engine, and later developed an Analytical Engine(i.e. a functioning computer) during the late 1800s. As a result, the Computer Revolution took place at the same time as the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain is now one of the most powerful nations on Earth. One of the first books ever to be called {{Steampunk}}
* In ''The Age of Unreason'' series by Gregory Keyes, Sir Isaac Newton discovered the fundamental laws of alchemy instead of physics, resulting in a world where transmutation weapons tilt the balance of the Revolutionary War.
* StephenBaxter's ''Time's Tapestry'' series is essentially one of different alternate histories, all tied to one character.

** Newman is also co-writer of ''Back In The USSA'' with Creator/EugeneByrne, in which the Communist revolution happens in America instead of Russia, and wrote the two "Alternate Major" stories (a {{Dystopia}} where JohnMajor is the leader of Nazi Britain, and a {{Utopia}} where he cheerfully remains a bus conductor).

* In a real life-ish example, one of the essays in ''James Bond in the 21st Century'' has sci-fi author Mark W. Tiedemann [[http://books.google.com/books?id=zpI5RbRwnd4C&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q&f=false imagining a world]] where SeanConnery wasn't Bond in ''Film/DrNo''.

** In ''TheLongWalk'', the setting [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted appears to be]] America in the 1980s, except for a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it details dropped in the narrative, namely the occurrence of the "German air-blitz of the American East Coast during the last days of World War II", and the existence of April 31st and a 51st state.

* Joanna Russ' ''The Female Man'' takes place over several alternate worlds, one in which Hitler was assassinated in 1936, World War II never happened and the Depression never ended, one in which there is a literal "war of the sexes" going on in which men and women live in different nations and one in which all men were killed in a plague and women reproduce parthenogenetically. The last one is presented as a MarySuetopia. [[Or perhaps a CrapsacharrineWorld as it's hinted that the disease was not natural but a deliberate murder of the men.]]

* In the Cory Doctorow novella "A Place So Foreign", trade up and down the timeline has resulted in the Seventies being a RaygunGothic world while an unscrupulous Creator/JulesVerne has plagerized numerous other authors including HGWells and Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs.
* The shared universe book ''Exile: Clan of the Claw'', edited and created by Bill Fawcett (with Creator/SMStirling, HarryTurtledove, Creator/JohnRingo and Jody Lynn Nye among the contributors) takes place in a world where the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs never happened (apparently there are very few asteroids in that solar system according to the introduction) resulting not only in sentient dinosaurs with PsychicPowers but in an intelligent mammalian species descended not from apes but from felines.

* In IanMcDonald's ''Planesrunner'', first of a trilogy, there are ten known alternate worlds, including ours. In ''Planesrunner'' only three are explained in any detail. E2 has an Islamic Britain due to the island being located a hundred miles west of the Straits of Gibralter instead of north of continantal Europe. Oddly enough Ireland is still where it belongs. E3 has elements of both SteamPunk and RaygunGothic. There's no oil in that world so everything is powered by coal but there are also no steam engines due to the electric motor being invented first (the very earliest was hand cranked). E4 is the most similar, 9/11 never happened, Al Gore ran again in 2004 and won. Also something odd and as yet unexplained happened to its moon. [[spoiler: Aliens landed on and colonized it in 1963. Their presence was known by Earth's governments but not revealed for 20 years. The Moon landing in '69 was actually a diplomatic mission]] Noone talks about E1 and it's quarantined [[spoiler: as the result of a nanotech experiment gone horribly wrong.]]

* ''The Island of Crimea'' by VasilyAksyonov postulates WhatIf the Crimean peninsular was an island in the Black Sea. This results in the Russian Civil War taking a different turn in 1917, when the last forces of the Whites (i.e. the Tsarists) retreat across the icy Black Sea to the island, preparing for a last stand against the rapidly approaching Reds (Communists). However, a British ship present in the area ends up opening fire on the Reds, cracking the ice and forcing their retreat. By the time the Reds are prepared to attack again, the Whites have built up considerable defenses, turning the island into a fortress. This, effectively, creates an independent Russian nation separate from Soviet Russia. Additionally, the author hypothesizes that this new nation would remain neutral during WorldWarTwo and become more pro-Western during the ColdWar period, having the best resorts in Europe, with the culture of Crimea being a strange blend of Russian, Soviet, and Western cultures, adding the local Tatars into the mix. It should be noted that the author's aim was to write a political satire, not a science fiction novel. Which is why the novel was never published in the USSR.
* AlekseyVolkov has written several novels that take place in the past with fairly simple {{What If}}s, sometimes as a result of TimeTravel:
** ''Bayonet and Faith'': The Russian Revolution has unintended consequences and results in conflicts and desires for freedom throughout the world. It doesn't help that people suddenly start developing strange (possily magical) abilities which only serves to fuel the fire.

* John Barnes' ''Finity'', set in 2062, has lots of them arranged in "braids" gathered around a major difference but with minor differences between them. The two main braids dealt with are "The Reichs" where Nazi Germany won World War II and by the mid 21st century is a commonwealth of twelve semi-independent Reichs (The Dutch, French, English, American etc) that dominate the world with Japan and Italy controling East Asia and Africa respectively and a handful of minor democracies and "Diego Garcia" where the last remnant of the US in a Soviet dominated world is a trio of small islands in the Indian Ocean. A offshoot of the Diego Garcia braid is the "Puritan Party" one where the United Staes remains independent but at the cost of becoming a fundamentalist Protestant theocratic republlic.

* MaryGentle's AshASecretHistory presents an alternate late-medieval Europe where things are rather different in countless ways; unlike most alternate history, there is no obvious past point of divergence, [[spoiler:although one, more a point of ''convergence'', occurs at the end of the book]].
* AffinityBridge by George Mann takes place in Victorian London. Nothing notable except for the SteamPunk...and zombies... and airships.

* Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' novels are a sort of Alternate Fiction; What if {{Dracula}} was real ... and more competent than Creator/BramStoker's version? It gets meta when he establishes that in the AD universe, Stoker invented AlternateHistory with his wish-fulfillment novel of Dracula getting distracted by Mina Harker and killed by van Helsing and his RagtagBandOfMisfits.

** For that matter, the ''Star Trek'' timeline originally called for a [[IWantMyJetPack Eugenics War in the 1990s]] although the Voyager episode "Future's End" has the crew going back to ThePresentDay, which is 1996. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' then referred back to it as a 21st century war, while the ExpandedUniverse has given various explanations ranging from a SecretWar to our world being the AlternateHistory.

* ''[[Music/{{Hero}} !Hero: The Rock Opera]]'' tells the story of Jesus in an AlternateHistory where Jesus wasn't born until the modern age, where the world is ruled by a OneWorldOrder named I.C.O.N. which has banned all religions except for Judaism.

* ''VideoGame/IronStorm'' was set in a {{Dystopia}}n AlternateHistory where WorldWarOne had dragged on until 1964. A number of changes include {{dieselpunk}}ish assault rifles and powered armor.

* Speaking of GeorgeLucas, ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' takes place in an AlternateHistory where the ''Franchise/StarWars'' films were never made and instead the plot was used as an RPG campaign.

* ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo'' Once had a storyline about Rayne writing an AlternateHistory book about Nazi Germany, though the main AlternateHistory thing about it was the SelfInsertFic part.

* The many, many, many varied (and often [[ShownTheirWork well researched]] and highly detailed) scenarios created over the years by the members of AlternateHistoryDotCom. They also created a weekly comedic AH-themed forum series, ''AHDotComTheSeries'' - in which the members explore various AlternateHistory timelines. You can access the site and its discussion board [[http://www.alternatehistory.com/ here]].
** ''DecadesOfDarkness'' (see [[http://alternatehistory.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=8170 here]] and [[http://www.alternatehistory.com/decadesofdarkness/ here]]) is a very long story about a universe where seven US states (the [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]] states, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}} and [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]]) seceded from the US in 1810 and formed the Republic of New England, after the premature death of Thomas Jefferson. As a result, the USA keep slavery as an institution long into the 20th century, and became generally nastier. (The author describes ''[=DoD=]'' as "TheDraka, but in a realistic fashion".) If printed, it would qualify as a {{doorstopper}}. A novel taking place in the world of ''[=DoD=]'' is planned.
** ''AWorldOfLaughterAWorldOfTears'' by statichaos is an ATL where DwightDEisenhower suffers a heart attack on the campaign trail, forcing the Republican Party to search for a fresh candidate in the 1952 Presidential Election. Who do they pick? Creator/WaltDisney. Don't let the premise fool you, though -- this timeline is extremely dark, and every update turns it more and more into a WorldHalfEmpty. Has a sequel coming at some point in the near future.
** ''HoldingOutForAHeroGustavStresemannSurvives'' by Faeelin. Germany doesn't turn militant in the 1930s, yet the world is not all sunshine and rainbows. ''Very'' detailed.

** ''LookToTheWest'', a timeline which begins with a very minor ForWantOfANail and so far has got an imperial America, a very different SteamPunk French Revolution, and Russians and Lithuanians conquering Japan.

** ''DamselsAndDirigibles'' is a timeline that brings hot chicks and airships together in an interwar (1918-1939) setting. Along with gas masks, ridiculously conspicuous uniforms, and sabers, Damsels and Dirigibles intends to create a unique aesthetic style that is chock full of [[AnachronismStew fanciful anachronisms]] and [[TwoFistedTales all around pulpy fun]]. Although this timeline has a rather dull point of divergence (the Hague Convention of 1899), the plentiful (albeit amateur) illustrations and harrowing tales should nullify any historical boredom you happen to come upon. Original illustrations, whether they be sketches or fake newspaper clippings, periodically accompany updates, and naturally they heavily feature the titular damsels and dirigibles. Also The CthulhuMythos (or at least ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'') is true.

** ''[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=146633 Canadian Power: The Canadian Forces as a Major Power]]'' by theMann has Canada retain its CV capability when Pierre Elliot Trudeau buys the HMS Eagle from the United Kingdom to replace the aging ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Bonaventure Bonaventure]]'' in 1972. Robert Stanfield and David Lewis force a non-confidence vote that leads to Stanfield becoming Prime Minister, through the accquisition of the Eagle, and later, military hardware like F-14s intended to go Iran before its revolution, Canada becomes a military power.

* ''Film/TheRocketeer'' is revealed to be one of these. The ''Hindenburg'' disaster never happened, which means the Nazis are still using them in 1938.

* The upcoming [[Pixar]] film ''The Good Dinosaur'' takes place in a world where the K-T extinction event never happened and ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Stegosaurus'' coexist with Cretaceous dinosaurs.

* What if the Confederacy had won TheAmericanCivilWar?

** Practically inevitable in the hideously complicated strategy game ''VideoGame/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun''. Encompasses the entire globe and allows dozens of playable factions, from 1836 to 1920. VictorianBritain, TheAmericanCivilWar, WorldWarOne, JidaiGeki, DarkestAfrica, you name it, it's there for the changing. The main menu art for the second game depicts a gunfight between Confederate troops and ''British redcoats''.

** ''The Tyranny of King Washington'', the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed3'' expansions, asks WhatIf GeorgeWashington had accepted the title of King instead of President.

* ''The Tyranny of King Washington'', the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed3'' expansions, asks WhatIf GeorgeWashington had accepted the title of King instead of President.

* ''{{ComicBook/TheBoys}}'' has a point of divergence in World War II, when a formula that can turn people into superhumans is invented and immediately, unsuccessfully weaponized. The ongoing attempts to turn superheroes into something that can be used in war instead results in the superheroes being the focus of a massive media empire. Most notably, an attempt by a powerful but completely untrained group of superheroes to board the plane that knocked down the World Trade Center causes the same plane to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge instead.

* Samantha Shannon's ''The Bone Season'' is a rare example of an alternate history set in the future, in this case 2059. The [=PoD=] is 1859 when mysterious lights over Oxford England are followed by it being destroyed in a massive fire quarantined off. Later in 1905 Edward VII is discovered to have been Jack the Ripper and to have conducted Black Magic rites that opened a portal to dark forces and the Monarchy is done away and replaced by the British Republic. [[Spoiler: This is all government propaganda. The lights over Oxford were caused by a race of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent extradimensional vampires from the Netherworld]] called the Rephaim who colluded with elements of the British government to set up a dictatorship under the guise of a Republic.]]

[[Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts Hellenes & Harryhausens]][[/note]]

* The short story "The Prophet of Flores" by Ted Kosmatka takes place in a world where intelligent design beat out evolution as the prevailing biological theory.

** His ''Kaleidoscope Century'' is the narrative of an alternate future where the pivotal event was Yeltsin getting his brains splattered over the tank he was standing on and the coup against Gorbachev succeeding resulting in renewed and accelerated hotilities between NATO and the Soviet Union, ending in the Eurowar.

* In ''The Nanking War'' by Ryan McCall, an incident during the Nanking Massacre and a slightly different Panay Incident provokes a war between Japan and the USA, Britain and Germany.

* As pointed out in ''WebVideo/HistoryOfPowerRangers'' the franchise takes place in a universe where the Earth's Moon has a breathable atmosphere and apparently Earth normal gravity. Also it was still being visited by astronauts until Rita Repulsa was freed, by said astronauts.

* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' is a somewhat more mundane example than most. Not long before the movie was made the Illinois state legislature had debated a law that would revoke the tax-exempt status of buildings owned by churches that weren't themselves used as houses of worship. In RealLife the law didn't pass but in the film it did, necessitating the boys take on their MissionFromGod to get money to pay the taxes on the catholic orphanage they grew up in.

** Further complicating this is the novel features its own AlternateHistory [[ShowWithinAShow novel]], ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'', whose plot involved the Axis losing WorldWarII, with the post-war world dominated by a cold war between America and... the British Empire.
* ''For Want of a Nail'' by Robert Sobel. Burgoyne wins at Saratoga, the American Revolution fizzles out, and the American colonies eventually evolve into a sort of uber-Canada. The rebels who weren't hanged migrate to [[strike:Texas]] [[DoomedMoralVictor Jefferson]] and meld into a Spanglish Mexico, which gives rise to [[NGOSuperpower an ur-state global corporation]] in Kramer Associates.

* Robert Conroy has written six alternate history novels none of which, despite the similarity of the IdiosyncraticTitles occur in the same universe.:

** ''1945'', about an American invasion of the Japanese home island.

** ''Himmler's War'', in which Hitler is accidentally killed shortly after the invasion of Normandy, Himmler takes over and Germay's proffesional military is given a much freer hand.

** In his ''Without Warning'' an energy field of unknown type and origin descends on North America wiping out all life in most of the continental US (Seattle is the only major city to survive), about half of Canada (the more populated eastern half), 90% of Mexico and about three-quarters of Cuba including Havana just before the Iraq War is due to kick off in 2003. This leads to, among other things, a rather different Iraq War since Saddam proclaims this a sign from Allah and goes on the offensive and is later joined by Iran [[spoiler: leading to Isreal nuking most of the Middle East]].

* Michael Dobson and Douglas Niles's novels, ''Fox on the Rhine'' and ''Fox on the Front'' explore what would have happened if the plot to assassinate Hitler had succeeded. [[spoiler:Himmler maneuvers himself into the leadership spot in the Third Reich, and appoints Rommel to command the Ardennes offensive. Rommel ends up being defeated, surrenders, and defects to the Allies along with the bulk of his army group.]]

* ''Resurrection Day'' by Brendan [=DuBois=] supposes that the Cuban Missile Crisis sparked off a nuclear war. The United States is a virtual third-world country under military dictatorship, dependent on aid from Great Britain and treated by the rest of the world as a rogue state. An alternate history novel is mentioned by the protagonists in which WW3 was averted, though needless to say it doesn't have the Kennedy's being assassinated either.

* Alan Goldsher's "Paul is Undead" is what if John Lennon, [=Paul McCartney=] and George Harrison were zombies and Ringo Starr was a ninja

* Creator/CharlesStross in his ''Literature/TheMerchantPrincesSeries'' has a world where Christianity never existed, and is thus at a medieval level of development with the east coast of America ruled by Germanic kingdoms descended from a second viking settlement of the Americas. As of book 2 [[spoiler:there is also a second world where France successfully invaded England in the 16th century but the heir to the British throne was in the colonies at the time so all of the Americas is New Britain, a constitutional monarchy. Socially it's in the 19th century, non-universal suffrage, the King still has actual power. Technologically, it's between the early 20th century, cars are new and run on steam, and the mid 20th century, France just detonated a "corpuscular petard."]] As of book 4 [[spoiler: they discover a 4th world. Not much is known except it is completely uninhabited except for dead bodies and technology that suggests this world was ''very'' advanced, including the fact that the dead bodies have totally perfect teeth, all 32 no crowns.]]

* ''Moon of Ice'' by Brad Linaweaver is another one where Hitler wins the Second World War. Joseph Goebbel's daughter has escaped to a libertarian United States to publish her late father's diaries, which expose the truth about the regime, as well as an SS plot to seize power and commit genocide with bioweapons of all non-Aryan races.

* Lance Parkin's "[[FactionParadox Warlords of Utopia]]" features a universe where Rome never fell creating alliances with other similar universes (including one that was Amazonian and another where the Dinosaurs never became extinct) goes to war against multiple universes where the nazis won and created an interuniversal Axis empire. The Romans won because the Nazis forgot the importance of training their soldiers to fight someone with a sword and a (kevlar lined) shield. Throw in some steampunk and you've a very fun story.

** The author even attempts to make the novels seem contemporary (despite taking place in an AlternateReality) by adding several characters who could be considered duplicates of real-life people, including Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger (a trigger-happy, square-jawed officer of the Guard) , [[Literature/TheLittlePrince Antoine de Saint Exupery]] (a nobleman, a retired pilot, and an amateur poet), and Creator/GerardDepardieu (thief-turned-bishop, miracle worker).

** There are other differences to: the 1906 revolution in the Ottoman Empire that turned the Empire into a democracy with the Sultan as a puppet figure failed, so the monarchy is still in place by 1914, [[spoiler:leading to a second (successful) revolution being launched. With the Empire in turmoil, they never enter the war]]. Also, Nikola Tesla invented a superweapon that manipulates Earth's magnetic field (the Tunguska Event was actually a test firing), which he plans to use to end the war. [[spoiler:The device doesn't actually work, but the Germans think it does, so they launch a secret attack on Tesla's lab in New Jersey. The Americans find out and enter the war 3 years early, ending the war within a year]].

* In Tim Doyle's ''GoMutants'' a parody that melds TeenWangst 50s movies and 50s sci-fi movies Aliens and humans went to war in the 50s resulting in four US states and France being wiped out. Among other things Nixon won in 1960 and was a three-termer and Ronald Reagan is Vice-President in 72 (when the story occurs).
* George Mann's ''Ghosts of Manhatten'' takes place in a 1926 where the United States and the British Empire (which is substantially bigger) had a falling out after WWI and are currently engaged in a cold war.

* Otto Basil's ''The Twilight Men'' is set in rather bleak version of the Europe in 1960's. The Third Reich won the World War II and rules large part of the Continental Europe facing the war with its former ally, Imperial Japan. The National Socialism mutated into National Materialism (described as nihilistic dictatorship) while sprouting underground, mystical cult worshiping Hitler as an Odin-like figure. The Führer himself dies of natural causes at the onset of the plot.
* While it's non-fiction, the book ''Why the West Rules, For Now'' by Ian Morris includes a couple of vignettes, one positing a world where China discovered the New World and went on to dominate the globe and another, possibly in the same universe, Prince Albert is sent to Peking as a hostage after the British fleet is destroyed by the Chinese.

* In Creator/MikeResnick's ''The Buntline Special'' the western border of the United States in 1881 is the Mississipi due to Indian magic.

* In ''Literature/{{Eon}}'' from ''Literature/TheWaySeries'', the book ends with [[spoiler:Patricia escaping from The Way to an alt-earth were the Egyptian empire never fell, and is now a member of an Mediterranean federation.]]

** In novel, ''TheLongWalk'', the setting [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted appears to be]] America in the 1980s, except for a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it details dropped in the narrative, namely the occurrence of the "German air-blitz of the American East Coast during the last days of World War II", and the existence of April 31st and a 51st state.

* ''The Island of Crimea'' by VasilyAksyonov postulates WhatIf the Crimean peninsular was an island in the Black Sea. This results in the Russian Civil War taking a different turn in 1917, when the last forces of the Whites (i.e. the Tsarists) retreat across the icy Black Sea to the island, preparing for a last stand against the rapidly approaching Reds (Communists). However, a British ship present in the area ends up opening fire on the Reds, cracking the ice and forcing their retreat. By the time the Reds are prepared to attack again, the Whites have built up considerable defenses, turning the island into a fortress. This, effectively, creates an independent Russian nation separate from Soviet Russia. Additionally, the author hypothesizes that this new nation would remain neutral during WorldWarTwo and become more pro-Western during the ColdWar period, having the best resorts in Europe, with the culture of Crimea being a strange blend of Russian, Soviet, and Western cultures, adding the local Tatars into the mix. It should be noted that the author's aim was to write a political satire, not a science fiction novel. Which is why the novel was never published in USSR.

* John Barnes ''Finity'' set in 2062 has lots of them arranged in "braids" gathered around a major difference but with minor differences between them. The two main braids dealt with are "The Reichs" where Nazi Germany won World War Ii and by the mid 21st century is acommonwealth of twelve semi-indepent Reichs (The Dutch, French, English, American etc) that dominate the world with Japan and Italy controling East Asia and Africa respectively and a handful of minor democracies and "Diego Garcia" where the last remnant of the US in a Soviet dominated world is a trio of small islands in the Indian Ocean. A offshoot of the Diego Garcia braid is the "Puritan Party" one where the United Staes remains independent but at the cost of becoming a fundamentalist Protestant theocratic republlic.

* Creator/MattRuff's ''Mirage'' takes place in a United Arab States that occupies most of the Middle East, having successfully split from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century, that has to deal with attacks from extremist Christian terrorists. There is an Isreal but it's in northern Germany with southern Germany having been occupied since the 1967 Six Days War.

* In ''Series/{{JAG}}'' there really was a smoking gun connecting Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda, discovered by U.S. troops in one of Saddam's palaces, as seen in "Lawyers, Guns and Money". However this information appear to be classified (for some reason), because a year later Harm, Mac & Bud prepare their defense arguments before the International Criminal Court in "People v. SecNav" and Mac explicitly states that there is no smoking gun connecting Al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.

* "Aces and Eightss" has a very in-depth alternate reality, just so players can't go about hunting down political figures just to say that they changed history.

* ''MetalGearSolid3'' does this by explaining that the Cold War happened because the Soviet Union, China and America originally plotted together to combat the Axis Powers and that after the war there has been a power struggle to reobtain the vast amount of wealth they have pooled. Other oddities created by this include the existence of the Cobra unit and mobile nuclear death machines.
* Used subtly in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', to explain the differences in construction styles from history (which to the expert border on SchizoTech, but to the layman are nearly invisible and easily justifiable through SceneryPorn and RuleOfCool) and also to insert the [[MurderInc Assassins]] and the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Templars]] into the political mix. So, you have several buildings in a Gothic style that wouldn't come in vogue for hundreds of years, and several people who died historically during the time of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' were "revealed" to have been killed by Altair (your targets in-game). Also, the TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture framing story, with plagues sending people illegally migrating to Mexico and year round hurricanes, not to mention the presence of the Animus itself, suggest a far different history than our own.
** Sort of. Everyone thinks the history is the same in-canon, but it's a Templar lie. The immigration and hurricanes are because of a downward spiral where the Economy and Ozone are non-existent because HumansAreBastards.
** Further solidified in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII,'' if the existence of [[spoiler:a secret tomb beneath the Vatican related to The Ones That Came Before]] is any indication, among other things.
** No, it's a genre called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_history Secret History]].
** Played straight in ''The Tyranny of King Washington'' DLC, which asks WhatIf GeorgeWashington had accepted the title of King instead of President.
* Probably the most dramatic use of this trope in a video game is the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. In the Fallout universe, TheSixties never occurred, and the sociopolitical standards of TheFifties continued well into the 21st century, with all the extenuating political, artistic, and scientific implications;

*** What the use sure looks like [[{{Zeerust}} Gopher]], though.
** Cold fusion was discovered, (from [[{{Powered Armor}} Power armor]] research) and even some cars run on nuclear batteries (as evidenced in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', when you blow up a car and a ''mushroom cloud'' forms).[[labelnote:note]]Nuclear powered vehicles didn't appear until ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas''.[[/labelnote]]
** There are minor changes in the history of the Fallout universe pre-[=WWII=] as well; witness, for example, Alien abductions at least since 1603 and the Sunset Sarsaparilla est 1918.
*** {{Abraham Lincoln}}'s [[{{AuthorityEqualsAsskicking}} Gold plated Henry repeater actually existed.]] http://americanhistory.si.edu/Militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=3
**** In the Fallout universe, however, it was chambered in .44 Magnum, rather than .44 Henry.
*** History isn't the only difference in Fallout, WordOfGod has it that there are actual differences in the laws of physics. Basically, the way that the universe operates is more along the lines of the "SCIENCE!" of '50s {{B movie}}s than our own scientific knowledge.
* ''RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' and its sequel, ''RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'', do this quite discreetly, by using the Japanese calendar and noting the year as Taisho 20, when in real history, the Taisho era only lasted fifteen years. It's noted in the first game that, should the timeline remain unpolluted, the result would have been the CrapsackWorld that is ''ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''ShinMegamiTenseiII''. After the modifications imposed by a time-traveling villain, the timeline's implied to have diverged irrevocably into the world where ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'', the other ''Devil Summoner'' games, and the ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' series all take place in.

* ''IronStorm'' was set in a {{Dystopia}}n AlternateHistory where WorldWarOne had dragged on until 1964. A number of changes include {{dieselpunk}}ish assault rifles and powered armor.
* ''ChromeHounds'': The game is set in 2006, with the USSR still in existence, the US out of touch with mostly everyone, and most importantly: Humongous Mecha being deployed in warzones.
* ''MaceTheDarkAge'' exists in a world where neither Christianity nor Islam existed. Without these religions, Europe and Arabia is heavily Balkanized. Meanwhile in Asia, Genghis Khan's descendants continue to rule.

** ''[[AngloAmericanNaziWar The Anglo/American-Nazi War]]'' charts a world where the Nazis didn't back up the Italians in North Africa, thus freeing up troops and supplies to win the battle of Stalingrad. Stalin, enraged at the defeat, purges the Red Army's leadership, paving the way for the Nazi conquest of the Soviet Union. With the Western Allies lacking an opening to invade Europe, Hitler is free to enact all his dreams upon the continent. At least until the Nazis make the miscalculation to break their ceasefire with the Western Allies...

** ''The Literature/ChaosTimeline'' is called by its author @/MaxSinister "the Mount Everest of AlternateHistory": A realistic timeline which starts with the death of Genghis Khan, thus erasing his conquests from history, and continuing it until the present. With the result that history changes a lot compared to our world, although some patterns seem to reappear. Features among other things a New Roman empire, a German technocracy and a Socialist western Europe.

** ''AGreaterBritain'' by EdT postulates a world in which Oswald Mosley never becomes a fascist and instead becomes Prime Minister of Britain.

** ''[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=94562/ Fight and be Right]]'' by EdT is a timeline where Randolph Churchill's political career takes off and he dominates Brittish politics for 20 years, by the '40s [[spoiler:Al Capone is president of France, the Federation of Worker's Republics is suppressing an Islamic insurgency in Egypt, a social-democrat German Empire dominates Central-Eastern Europe, Czarist Russia is still a big kid on the block and Israel is in Western Australia and Yiddish-speaking]].

** ''DamselsAndDirigibles'' is a timeline that brings hot chicks and airships together in an interwar (1918-1939) setting. Along with gas masks, ridiculously conspicuous uniforms, and sabers, Damsels and Dirigibles intends to create a unique aesthetic style that is chock full of [[AnachronismStew fanciful anachronisms]] and [[TwoFistedTales all around pulpy fun]]. Although this timeline has a rather dull point of divergence (the Hague Convention of 1899), the plentiful (albeit amateur) illustrations and harrowing tales should nullify any historical boredom you happen to come upon. Original illustrations, whether they be sketches or fake newspaper clippings, periodically accompany updates, and naturally they heavily feature the titular damsels and dirigibles. Also The CthulhuMythos (or at least ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'')is true.

*** Also notable is the [[MassTeleportation ISOT]] where the devastated Canadian cities in ''NineteenEightyThreeDoomsday'' are replaced with their ''CanadianPower'' counterparts, as well as Canadian Forces bases, ships, and other pieces off infrastructure. ''[[http://www.alternatehistory.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=172044 Currently ongoing]]''.

** An older example from the forum would be ''1983 Soviet Union ISOT to [[Literature/NineteenEightyThree 1983]]'', which has the USSR of that time [[AlienSpaceBats transported for reasons unknown]] into Orwell's dystopia. Once they get their act together, the result is one CurbStompBattle after another over the three superpowers. It says a lot that even at their most questionable actions and motives, compared to the others the Soviets are very much ''[[BlackAndGreyMorality the good guys]].''

* ''InglouriousBasterds'', and by extension the entire universe of Creator/QuentinTarantino movies, [[spoiler: takes places in an alternate WWII era in which Hitler and his three biggest men are killed by the basterds in June 1944.]]

* ''TheManInTheIronMask'' is [[FridgeBrilliance implied in the end to take place in one]]. With the [[spoiler:real life Louis XIV]] basically ousted from power, his [[spoiler:twin brother]] proceeds to become the greatest monarch in French history and possibly prevent the circumstances leading to the FrenchRevolution in the process.

* The ''BluesBrothers'' movie is a somewhat more mundane example than most. Not long before the movie was made the Illinois state legislature had debated a law that would revoke the tax-exempt status of buildings owned by churches that weren't themselves used as houses of worship. In RealLife the law didn't pass but in the film it did, necessitating the boys take on their MissionFromGod to get money to pay the taxes on the catholic orphanage they grew up in.

* In ''{{Rose Guns Days}}'', Japan lost WWII not because of the bomb in 1945 but because of a natural disaster in 1944. Japan is flooded with American and Chinese government meddling, "helping" with reconstruction − and bringing millions of immigrants with them. Japanese traditions are cast aside, finding a job outside of mafia or prostitution without fluently speaking English or Chinese is nigh-impossible, and in 1947 pretty much every japanese person already has a second Western name, in the way that Amakawa Jun took the name "Jeanne". By 2012 Tokyo is more of a bilingual country with English and Chinese, and speaking Japanese has become very rare.

** For bonus NightmareFuel, in at least one timeline (codenamed Reich-5), the Nazis have ruled Earth for decades and are now starting to study parachronic travel, with techniques that include PoweredByAForsakenChild, DealWithTheDevil, and AndIMustScream.

* The ''Patient Zero'' arc of ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}} Badlands'' (issues 50-56) confirmed that GordonBrown was Britain's prime minister when the world-ending Crossed pandemic began, thereby making him the last ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in that world.

* The ''Patient Zero'' arc of ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}} Badlands'' (issues 50-56) confirmed that [[GordonBrown Gordon Brown]] was Britain's prime minister when the world-ending Crossed pandemic began, thereby making him the last ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in that world.