Clopton's Short History of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1925

Other counterfactual histories are based on a concept from chaos theory called the butterfly effect. According to chaos theory, a very small difference in one initial condition of a dynamical system, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, may cause a series of changes that in the long run produce a vast change in conditions. "Clopton's History of the Confederate States of America, 1861 - 1925" by Carole Elizabeth Scott is different. So that the ramifications of several things that could have happened can be explored in one story, there are several precipitating initial changes in this story, and the story continues much further into the future than does the typical counterfactual history. This story is very unusual in that it takes the form of a textbook. A unique twist is that this counterfactual textbook was co-authored by a fictional college professor and a counterfactual version of Scott. History professors have biases. By taking the form of textbook, this story is able to demonstrate the likely difference between how victorious Confederate historians would have viewed given events and issues than have real world American historians. Real textbooks often have an appendix; so does this counterfactual textbook. The appendix provides biographical sketches of a number of real people. It provide readers with some insights into often not widely known aspects of the real world that guided the author in fabricating a reasonable alternative history.