Historians and inquisitive laymen alike love to ponder the dramatic what-ifs of history. In these never-before-published essays, some of the keenest minds of our time ask the big, tantalizing questions: Where might we be if history had not unfolded the way it did? Why, how, and when was our fortune made real? The answers are surprising, sometimes frightening, and always entertaining.

This provocative collection of essays features today's foremost historians speculating on these "what ifs", providing a fascinating new prospective on history's most pivotal events. The essays include:

The Peace of 1914: The World War that Wasn't by Robert Cowley

How Hitler Could Have Won the War: The Drive for the Middle East by John Keegan

Our Midway Disaster: Japan Springs a Trap, June 4, 1942 by Theodore F. Cook

D-Day Fails: Atomic Alternatives in Europe by Stephen E. Ambrose

Funeral in Berlin: The Cold War Turns Hot by David Clay Large

China Without Tears: If Chiang Hadn't Gambled in 1946 by Arthur Waldron

In addition to the essays are fascinating "sidebars" provided by such authors as James Chace, Ted Morgan, and others that illuminate in brief other world-changing episodes.