alternative history

English

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɔːltɜːnətɪv ˌhɪstɹi/, /ˈɒltənətɪv ˌhɪstɹi/, /-ˌhɪstəɹi/, /-ˌhɪst(ə)ɹɪ/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɔltɚnətɪv ˌhɪstɹi/, /-ˌhɪstəɹi/, /ˈɑl.tɚ.nətɪv-/

Noun

alternative history (usually uncountable, plural alternative histories)

  1. Counterfactual history, a form of scientific speculation used by historians.
    • 2014 May, Konstantin Sheiko, Stephen Brown, History as Therapy: Alternative History and Nationalist Imaginings in Russia:
      One of the many criticisms that can be directed at alternative historians is their failure to think historically. For alternative history, the past is not a ‘foreign country’, but rather a country that closely resembles the Russian Empire of recent times.
  2. (fiction) A genre of fiction based around or involving ahistorical events (often occurring after a fixed point of divergence from real history).

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Further reading

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