What Happened Didn’t Have to Happen…Or Did It?

The power of counterfactual thinking to uncover assumptions of inevitability in history, current events

“In Britain, academics often dismiss counterfactual history as a ‘busman’s holiday.’ Maybe so. But it can be an enlightening exercise to challenge the belief that what happened had to happen. Usually, it didn’t.” –JACOB HEILBRUNN in a review of Jeff Greenfield’s alternative history on John Kennedy’s two terms as president, if he weren’t assassinated.

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