Several weeks ago, I pondered actually sitting down and toying with a revisionist history piece titled something like “What If There Was No America?” The most difficult part, not being a sociologist, economist, engineer, historian, scientist, etc, would be to find a point in time to “separate” the American experience from the actual history and then commence to postulate on the path “history” would have then taken with some degreee of credibility for the purpose of the article/essay.
I guess it was all spawned by the History Channel “Engineering an Empire” series. What it took, and how nations formed and developed, and then had to come up with innovations to continue their growth is facinating. As I watched the episode “Britian: Blood and Steel,” I began to consider what we have contributed to civilization and the genesis of my essay idea.
Well, as luck would have it, some called about three days ago, while they were discussing the Sandy Berger song writing contest on the Bill Bennett show (this week – and you have until midnite tonight to get your entry in), someone suggested Bill write a book “A World Without America.” Bill’s response was to say he will set up and essay contest for submissions of 1000 word essays for this 4th of July time frame – $1000 to the winner.
So, the question is: Do you have a flair or passion for writing fictional history? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll get rewarded for your efforts…but…based on some of the lyrics submitted for the Sandy Burgler song contest, be ready for some seriously competent competition from the listeners to that show…
Cross posted from: Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Thanks for X-posting this here!
I guess you already have my own response at CSA, eh? 🙂
Hey, nice one. Thanks for the post, and the heads’ up. Might have to give this one a shot, or at least a little serious thought. Enjoyed Engineering an Empire too, though the one on China short-changed some of the information from Gavin Menzies’ book on the Chinese treasure fleet (possibly for lack of historical support but more likely due to time constraints). The one on the Mayan empire was good, too, if you can overlook the slightly (cough) liberal slant that occasionally creeps in. All things considered, it’s been one of THCs better recent efforts.