Here is an interesting approach to studying history. In these 10 lectures, Jotner suggests what might have happened if different pivotal events hadn't occurred in U.S. history. Several concerned military history. Others were political in nature. The thing that was interesting was that in each case, there was one moment when things might have gone differently. What if Kennedy hadn't been shot? What if Theodore Roosevelt had? What if Lewis and Clark had been killed when they were attacked by two grizzly bears? What if that one guy hadn't gone back to the Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg just in time to see the Confederates coming up the hill? What if Queen Isabella hadn't agreed to fund Christopher Columbus? What if the Russian astro-engineer who put the first cosmonaut into space, hadn't died soon after? (et alii)The idea is that by looking at the contingencies, you come to see the importance and impact of critical moments of history.
This was an interesting romp through US history. I was familiar with all the events he discussed, but I learned new facts about each one that helped me see their importance in the broader picture of history. I thought Jotner made good points and plausible guesses of alternate outcomes except for his lecture on the Salem Witch Trials. He posited the if the Salem Witch Trials hadn't turned out so awful, laws about how witches were tried wouldn't have been challenged, and people might still be tried for witchcraft or Satan worship even today. That seemed very implausible to me because there are precious few left in the US that believe in God, let alone Satan and witchcraft. Beside that one, the rest of the lectures were affective in showing that the gate of history turns on very small hinges. (6 hours, 2025)
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