American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold FROM OUR EDITORS
It's 1924, the Jazz Age, but in Harry Turtledove's alternate history America, the Roaring Twenties are rumbling toward war. In the Confederate states, the fascistic Freedom Party is on the verge of seizing control of the presidency. In the United States, the Socialists rule the roost, led by President (erstwhile novelist) Upton Sinclair. The U.S. still controls Canada, but an independence movement there threatens to explode into open rebellion. Ireland, now free of Britain, has formed an alliance with the United States and Germany. After the Great Depression hits, international tensions mount precipitously.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"It is 1924 - a time of rebuilding, from the slow reconstruction of Washington's most honored monuments to the reclamation of devastated cities in Europe and Canada. In the United States, the Socialist Party, led by Hosea Blackford, battles Calvin Coolidge to hold on to the Powell House in Philadelphia. And it seems as if the Socialists can do no wrong, for the stock market soars and America enioys prosperity unknown in a half century. But as old names like Custer and Roosevelt fade into history, a new generation faces new uncertainties." "The Confederate States, victorious in the War of Secession and in the Second Mexican War but at last tasting defeat in the Great War, suffer poverty and natural calamity. The Freedom Party promises new strength and pride. But if its chief seizes the reins of power, he may prove a dangerous enemy for the hated U.S.A. Yet the United States take little note. Sharing world domination with Germany, they consider events in the Confederacy of little consequence." As the 1920s end, calamity casts a pall across the continent. With civil war raging in Mexico, terrorist uprisings threatening U.S. control in Canada, and an explosion of violence in Utah, the United States are rocked by uncertainty.
SYNOPSIS
AMERICAN EMPIRE: BOOK TWO
In this spectacular, thought-provoking epic of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has created an unparalleled vision of social upheaval, war, and cutthroat politics in a world very much like our ownﾽbut with dramatic differences.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
At its best, alternate history holds a mirror to our society, allowing us to understand our own past by examining hypothetical responses to similar but altered conditions in real or imagined worlds. In the latest installment of his retelling of the world wars, American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold, Harry Turtledove demonstrates convincingly how a native fascist ideology could spring up in a defeated Confederacy, as well as how economic conditions can develop independent of government policies. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
As Jake Featherston campaigns his way across the Confederate States of America (CSA) in the name of his militant Freedom Party, other forces in the world are preparing to move against the CSA's northern neighbor, the hated United States. Set in a North American continent divided into two American nations and an occupied Canada, the sequel to American Empire: Blood & Iron continues an American history that might have happened. Turtledove never tires of exploring the paths not taken, bringing to his storytelling a prodigious knowledge of his subject and a profound understanding of human sensibilities and motivations. For most libraries. [For more alternative history, see Worlds That Weren't, a collection of novellas by Turtledove and others, reviewed on p. 127. - Ed.] Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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