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 perspective on history's most pivotal events. The essays include:

* Infectious Alternatives: The Plague that Saved Jerusalem

by William H. McNeil

* No Glory That Was Greece: The Persians Win at Salamis

by Victor Davis Hanson

* Conquest Denied: Alexander the Great's Premature Death

by Josiah Ober

* Furor Teutonicus: The Teutoburg

by Lewis Lapham

* The Dark Ages Made Lighter: The Consequences of Two Defeats

by Barry S. Strauss

* The Death that Saved Europe: The Mongols Turn Back

by Cecilia Holland

* If Only It Had Not Been Such a Wet Summer

by Theodore K. Rabb

* The Immolation of Hernán Cortés

by Ross Hassig