Author | Harry Turtledove |
---|---|
Cover artist | Big Dot Designs |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | American Empire |
Genre | Alternate history novel |
Publication date | July 31, 2001 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
Pages | 512 |
ISBN | 0-345-40565-X |
OCLC | 47647632 |
813/.54 21 | |
LC Class | PS3570.U76 A8 2001 |
Preceded by | The Great War: Breakthroughs |
Followed by | American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold |
American Empire: Blood and Iron is the first book of the American Empire trilogy of alternate history fiction novels by Harry Turtledove. [1] It is a sequel to the novel How Few Remain and the Great War trilogy, and is part of the Southern Victory series. [2]
Blood and Iron covers events directly following the closing events of The Great War: Breakthroughs . It takes the TL-191 Earth from 1917 to 1924.
The Great War is over, with the United States of America and its ally the German Empire having emerged the victors. After being beaten by the Confederate States of America in 1862 and in 1882, the United States has triumphed and avenged those humiliations which had so embittered it over the years. In the CSA, a former soldier named Jake Featherston joins the fascistic Freedom Party and uses it as his platform for beginning to take over the Confederate government and exact revenge on both the USA and the groups he perceives as having "stabbed the CSA in the back": Black Southerners, the Southern aristocracy, and the Whig Party. He soon takes over as leader of the Party and unleashes angry veterans on his enemies.
The USA's conservative government, meanwhile, and Democratic incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt, who was running for a third term, lost the 1920 Presidential Election. Replacing Roosevelt and his Vice President Walter McKenna is the party of the masses: the Socialist ticket of President Upton Sinclair and Vice President Hosea Blackford (who marries Congresswoman Flora Hamburger). Ignoring the looming threat of the south, the Socialists focus on improving the lives of its citizenry — at the cost of trimming down its defenses and the military. Sinclair is inaugurated president of the United States on March 4, 1921 to much rejoicing from the Socialist party.
Later in 1921, Jake Featherston runs for office against Wade Hampton V of the Whigs and Ainsworth Layne of the Radical Liberals. Featherston loses by a narrow margin to Hampton, but resolves to fight on. In June 1922, President Hampton is assassinated by Freedom party member Grady Calkins three months into his term. This leads to a massive decline in Freedom Party membership as members, friends and allies desert it amidst such a high-profile embarrassment. The assassination evokes rare sympathy from the United States, which ends the heavy burden of reparations payments placed on the CSA. This contributes greatly to the revival of the CSA's currency, which had suffered from crippling inflation since the conclusion of the Great War. Popular distrust in the Freedom Party and the newfound strength of Confederate paper money leads to support for the newly appointed Whig President Burton Mitchel. The United States' Socialists also have no better notion about what to do with the blacks in North America, and ignore the plight of those in the Confederacy.
In Canada, Governor-General George Custer rules the former Dominion with an iron-felt glove, surviving several assassination attempts by Manitoban farmer Arthur McGregor. Custer kills McGregor with a bomb in the farmer's final attempt as he is parading through Rosenfeld, Manitoba. At this point, the war hero is forced to retire by the new Socialist administration. Sinclair aims to return the U.S. to the days of peace, hoping that by treating its neighbors with respect there will never be another war. He is popular enough to win re-election in 1924 — the same year the Freedom Party begins to involve its stalwarts in the Mexican Civil War (compare to the real-world Spanish Civil War of 1936-39), an action where the U.S. supported the Republican rebels, but its meager support was limited, compared to the supplies, weapons, and barrels (tanks) that the Confederacy gives to Mexican Emperor Maximilian III.
Peter Canon in his review for Publishers Weekly said that "watching historical processes in action is the novel's real attraction. Knowing what happened in our timeline, readers will want to imagine the results of different choices." [3] Don D'Ammassa writing for the Science Fiction Chronicle found this book more interesting than the last three because "Turtledove spends more time with his characters and with the motives behind the various developments rather than dwelling on the inevitable military encounters." [4]
How Few Remain is a 1997 alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first part of the Southern Victory saga, which depicts a world in which the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War. It is similar to his earlier novel The Guns of the South, but unlike the latter, it is a purely historical novel with no fantastical or science fiction elements. The book received the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1997, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1998. It covers the Southern Victory Series period of history from 1862 and from 1881 to 1882.
The Guns of the South is an alternate history novel set during the American Civil War by Harry Turtledove. It was released in the United States on September 22, 1992.
Drive to the East is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels.
Settling Accounts: Return Engagement is the first book of Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels.
The Southern Victory series or Timeline-191 is a series of eleven alternate history novels by author Harry Turtledove, beginning with How Few Remain (1997) and published over a decade. The period addressed in the series begins during the Civil War and spans nine decades, up to the mid-1940s. In the series, the Confederate States defeats the United States of America in 1862, therefore making good its attempt at secession and becoming an independent nation. Subsequent books are built on imagining events based on this alternate timeline.
Bring the Jubilee is a 1953 novel of alternate history by American writer Ward Moore.
The Great War: American Front is the first alternate history novel in the Great War trilogy by Harry Turtledove. It is the second part of Turtledove's Southern Victory series of novels. It takes the Southern Victory Series from 1914 to 1915.
American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold is the second book in the American Empire alternate history series by Harry Turtledove. It takes place during the period of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. During this era in Turtledove's Southern Victory world, the Confederate States of America, stretching from Sonora to Virginia, is led by Whigs while the United States of America is controlled by Socialists.
Settling Accounts: The Grapple by Harry Turtledove is the third book in the Settling Accounts tetralogy, an alternate history setting of World War II known as the Second Great War in North America. It is part of the Southern Victory, which supposes that the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War. It takes place in the Southern Victory Series Earth in 1943.
The Great War: Breakthroughs is the third and final installment of the Great War trilogy in the Southern Victory series of alternate history novels by Harry Turtledove. It takes the Southern Victory Series to 1917.
Settling Accounts: In at the Death is the last novel of the Settling Accounts tetralogy that presents an alternate history of World War II known as the Second Great War that was released July 27, 2007. It brings to a conclusion the multi-series compilation by author Harry Turtledove, a series sometimes referred to as Southern Victory. It covers the time period from 1943 to 1945.
The Great War: Walk in Hell is the second book in the Great War series of alternate history books by Harry Turtledove. It is also the third part of the Southern Victory. It takes the Southern Victory Series from 1915 to 1916.
American Empire: The Victorious Opposition is the third and final book in the American Empire alternate history series by Harry Turtledove, and the seventh in the Southern Victory series of books.
American Civil War alternate histories are alternate history fiction that focuses on the Civil War ending differently or not occurring. The American Civil War is a popular point of divergence in English-language alternate history fiction. The most common variants detail the victory and survival of the Confederate States. Less common variants include a Union victory under different circumstances from actual history, resulting in a different postwar situation; black American slaves freeing themselves by revolt without waiting for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; a direct British and/or French intervention in the war; the survival of Lincoln during John Wilkes Booth's assassination attempt; a retelling of historical events with fantasy elements inserted; the Civil War never breaking out and a peaceful compromise being reached; and secret history tales. The point of divergence in such a story can be a "natural, realistic" event, such as one general making a different decision, or one sentry detecting an enemy invasion unlike in reality. It can also be an "unnatural" fantasy/science fiction plot device such as time travel, which usually takes the form of someone bringing modern weapons or hindsight knowledge into the past. Still another related variant is a scenario of a Civil War that breaks out at a different time from 1861 and under different circumstances.
The Confederate States of America (1861–1865) only had one president, who was Jefferson Davis. In various American Civil War alternate histories where the Confederacy won the American Civil War and continued its existence, various people have served in the office of the presidency of the Confederacy.