Alternative History Novels - Eric Flint

I've read several books from the 1632 series, a mixture of alternative history and time travel. An entire town in West Virginia is mysteriously transported to the year 1631 and plopped down in what is today central Germany. So, you get a mixture of old world with 21st century American ego ... an explosive combination.

This is probably true with a lot of alternative history stories - I'm not sure since I've only read Turtledove and Flint - but Flint's stories have sections that are dripping with detailed history. I referred to this in an eariler post. The upside to this, of course, is if you wanted to know about 17th century politics (among other things), the 1632 series by Eric Flint is a good place to start.

From pretty much the outset the Americans have the sole goal of directing the course of this new reality. In particular they want to avoid a Germany we all are familiar with, the seeds which can be traced back to the 17th century. I wasn't aware of that part of Germany's history until I read the book. See, you can still have fun while learning.

In fact, I know a lot more about the 17th century now than I did before. I don't know about your World History class, but my 10th grade Honors World History course didn't go into a lot of detail about the 17th century. There was too much history to cover in one year. However, reading about it for entertainment has been a nice way to soak it in. You become familiar with historical characters in a way no history book could deliver.

Of course, reading alternative history or even a true history narative means reading through a lot of guess work, conjecture if you will. But, since most of the alternative history authors I've heard about have degrees in some form of history, I would venture to guess that their guesses are better than mine would be. Maybe.

More on the 1632 series later.