american Empire: Book One

twice In The Last Century, Brutal War Erupted Between The United States And The Confederacy. Then, After A Generation Of Relative Peace, The Great War Exploded Worldwide. As The Conflict Engulfed Europe, The C.s.a. Backed The Allies, While The U.s. Found Its Own Ally In Imperial Germany. The Confederate States, France, And England All Fell. Russia Self-destructed, And The Japanese, Seeing That The Cause Was Lost, Retired To Fight Another Day.

the Great War Has Ended, And An Uneasy Peace Reigns Around Most Of The World. But Nowhere Is The Peace More Fragile Than On The Continent Of North America, Where Bitter Enemies Share A Single Landmass And Two Long, Bloody Borders.

in The North, Proud Canadian Nationalists Try To Resist The Colonial Power Of The United States. In The South, The Once-mighty Confederate States Have Been Pounded Into Poverty And Merciless Inflation. U.s. President Teddy Roosevelt Refuses To Return To Pre-war Borders. The Scars Of The Past Will Not Soon Be Healed. The Time Is Right For Madmen, Demagogues, And Terrorists.

at This Crucial Moment In History, With Socialists Rising To Power In The U.s. Under The Leadership Of Presidential Candidate Upton Sinclair, A Dangerous Fanatic Is On The Rise In The Confederacy, Preaching A Message Of Hate. And In Canada Another Man—a Simple Farmer—has A Nefarious Plan: To Assassinate The Greatest U.s. War Hero, General George Armstrong Custer.

with Tension On The Seas High, And An Army Of Marxist Negroes Lurking In The Swamplands Of The Deep South, More Than Enough People Are Eager To Return The World To War. Harry Turtledove Sends His Sprawling Cast Of Men And Women—wielding Their Own Faiths, Persuasions, And Private Demons—into The Troubled Times Between The Wars.

nobody Plays The What-if Game Of Alternative History Better Than Turtledove, Especially When He Has A Large-scale Subject And When He's Working Close Enough To The Present For Readers To Appreciate His Detailed Analyses Of How Familiar Events Might Have Turned Out Differently. His Massive Trilogy, The Great War, Described How Wwi Might Have Been Fought On An Earth Where The Confederacy Was Still An Independent Nation. This Follow-up Novel Begins By Showing Postwar Life. Teddy Roosevelt Is President; However, The Socialist Party Gives The Establishment Serious Competition, As Veterans Question The Society They Fought To Save, And Upton Sinclair Challenges Tr In The Election Of 1920. Meanwhile, In The Humiliated And Bankrupt Confederate States, An Angry Racist With A Gift Of Demagoguery Whips Up Violent Mobs And Aims Them At His Enemies. Readers Will Recognize Some Of The Names, But 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. Sometimes, Luck And Willingness To Compromise Can Resolve Conflicts. On The Other Hand, The Southern Hitler May Have His Way. It Depends On How Well People Make Sense Of The Situations Facing Them. Turtledove's Introduction Carries Over A Cast Of 16 Varied Characters From The Great War. Not All Survive, But Readers Will Be Curious To See How The Rest Go On To Cope With New Challenges. This Book Begins A Panoramic Story, A New Trilogy At Least, That Promises To Be Immensely Fascinating. 5-city Author Tour; On-sale Date July 31. (aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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    • Crime & Mystery