Talk:Counterfactual history

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Revision as of 15:48, 27 February 2010 by imported>Hayford Peirce (→‎Relationship to the science fiction genre?: history is history, fiction is fiction)
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 Definition:  A history genre that argues by analogy to demonstrate outcomes that did not occur. [d] [e]
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Relationship to the science fiction genre?

Is there a reasonable parallel to the alternate history genre? --Howard C. Berkowitz 21:28, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

No. Heinlein was writing fiction; Historians who practice counterfactual history are writing history but (as I wrote in the article) are arguing from analogy. Russell D. Jones 21:35, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
As a guy who has actually written a couple of parallel-history novels, I would say that the counterfactual historians are, by definition, writing "fictional history". What else could it be qualified as? As opposed to "historical history," as written by, say, A.J.P. Taylor or Sam Morison. Hayford Peirce 21:48, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
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