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America in
Chains

REWRITING HISTORY April 30, 2006

REWRITING HISTORY

MAY 01, 2006

by L. Neil Smith <lneil@lneilsmith.com>

This essay first appeared in
The Libertarian Enterprise
http://www.ncc-1776.org

Lots of my work as a novelist involves the creation of “alternate histories”.

For readers unacquainted with the concept, the writer usually chooses some event most people consider pivotal — the Battle of Waterloo is an obvious choice — and then finds (or makes up) some reasonably credible way that the event might have happened differently.

No, I didn’t invent the idea, although folks often ask me if I …