alternative history

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(n.)
1. alternate history 1.

1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Histories B. Ash Visual Ency. of SF № 123/1: Silverberg's "Trips" [...] depicts tourist trips to such alternative histories as those where the Industrial Revolution never happened.
1979 A. C. Clarke Fountains of Paradise № 87: Almost all the Alternative History computer simulations suggest that the Battle of Tours (AD 732) was one of the crucial disasters of mankind.
1989 I. Watson World Renews Itself M. Bishop Nebula Awards 23 № 8: This time, however, the distancing devices are the fantasy elements of hexes and effective magic and the SF paraphernalia of alternative history.
1996 D. Pringle, et al. Ultimate Ency. of SF № 28/2: The alternative history template involves setting a story in a world which might have developed had some crucial event in history happened differently.

2. alternate history 2. Hence alternative historian, n. Compare uchronia.

1976 B. Ash Who's Who in SF № 12: Alternative histories, tales of Earth with usually one historical detail changed in the past, and chronicling the resulting effects today.
1990 Thrust (Winter) № 9/3: In this excellent alternative history, vampires rule the world of the 17th century.
1996 D. Pringle, et al. Ultimate Ency. of SF № 29/1: It was World War II that became the favourite topic of alternative historians. Stories set in worlds where Hitler was victorious are numerous.
2002 K. S. Robinson Locus (Jan.) № 7/1: There are all kinds of double binds in writing an alternative history. Do you make the alternate world better or worse?