# What's the 3rd-most popular topic for alternate history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520 "2020-06-12T05:56:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/1 "2020-06-12T05:56:37Z")
I’ve read that an Axis victory in WWII and Confederate victory in the Civil War are the two most popular departure points for alternate-history writers. What might be the 3rd-most popular? (And others too) Soviets win the Cold War? Nationalist victory in Chinese Civil War? Some alternate candidate wins the US presidency? Dinosaurs never go extinct? (per the Pixar movie) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/2 "2020-06-12T05:59:45Z")
Not a Cold War but a hot war–nuclear annihilation where everyone loses. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/3 "2020-06-12T07:16:30Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Dinosaurs never go extinct? (per the Pixar movie) I would vote for this alternate history if it included interesting but coherent twists. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/4 "2020-06-12T08:29:55Z")
[The Two Georges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Georges)scenario - the American revolution never happened, or was suppressed, or peace negotiated. America remains part of the British Empire. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/5 "2020-06-12T11:19:08Z")
Steam punk, where mechanical steam powered systems became more advanced and other technologies didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/6 "2020-06-12T11:36:22Z")
Rome never falling is a common one. Beyond that it starts to get more granular. There are stories for almost anything. I remember there used to be a web site that was just a giant timeline of history and it would mark the point of divergence for hundreds of different alternate history stories. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/7 "2020-06-12T12:43:52Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Rome never falling is a common one. Beyond that it starts to get more granular. There are stories for almost anything. I remember there used to be a web site that was just a giant timeline of history and it would mark the point of divergence for hundreds of different alternate history stories. > **[Uchronia: Divergence Chronology](http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/diverge.html)** > > Uchronia: The Alternate History List is an extensive bibliography of novels, stories, essays and other printed material involving the 'what ifs' of history. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/8 "2020-06-12T13:09:52Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > [Uchronia: Divergence Chronology](http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/diverge.html) I was going to suggest that one popular locale in Time Travel (although not necessarily a Point of Divergence) was The Crucifiction, which that list appears to substantiate. In fact, since they’re on the list, they must be divergences Sixteen entries for 30 CE plus or minus 5 years. (And they doesn’t inlude visitors, as with Silverburg’s _Up the Line_ or Michael Moorcock’s story and novel _Ecce Home_ or some others I’ve read.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/9 "2020-06-12T13:18:18Z")
I’m not sure that nuclear war is a popular alternate history topic: While there are a great many stories set after such a war, the war is usually set in the author’s future, and often in a deliberately-vague time that could be the future relative to any reader. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/10 "2020-06-12T13:24:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _Ecce Home_ _Behold the residence!!_ Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/11 "2020-06-12T13:29:22Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > _Behold the residence!!_ > Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 I was going to translate it as “I can see my house from here!” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/12 "2020-06-12T13:31:04Z")
Deleted ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/13 "2020-06-12T13:50:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > _Behold the residence!!_ > Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 Centurion: “Right. Now write _Ecce Homo_ one hundred times on the walls, or I’ll cut your balls off!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-3rd-most-popular-topic-for-alternate-history/855520/14 "2020-06-12T13:53:21Z")
I would say the genre where people of this time (or the near future) go back in time and change history. It can be a relatively short period for specific results, such as (_Guns of the South_, where an arms dealer tries to sell Robert E. Lee AK-47’s or a short story where a jet pilot ends up in WWI, or _A Gun for Dinosaur_, where the ‘butterfly’ effect is very real. It can also be a larger number of people in a very different world (_Destroyermen_ series) or changing a world that is already well-known (_Ring of Fire_, where a West Virginia town ends up in 17th Century Europe). Not as specific as WWII or the Civil War, but people going back to change history is a common theme. (one more, _The Return of William Proxmire_ by Larry Niven that shows changes aren’t always as they seem…) OK, press on.