Alternative Histories And A Summation

Poul Anderson had several ways to speculate in fiction about the possible alternative consequences of historical turning points:

two short stories are set in alternative histories - Alexander did not die young, the Jews did not return from Babylon;

in the Time Patrol series, Stane describes the peaceful future that he had hoped to bring about, two Neldorians do help Carthage to defeat Rome, quantum fluctuations upset the Medieval church-state balance of power, first one way, then the other;

in Genesis, Gaia generates an emulation where the conciliar movement succeeded and there was no Reformation or wars of religion but later Germany became powerful and oppressive.

SM Stirling added a Time Patrol story where World War I was prevented but, of course, the Patrol had to restore it.

John K. Hord, whose theory of historical cycles underpinned Anderson's Technic History, regarded the failure of the conciliar movement as a historical breakdown point. Again, Anderson's Genesis, whose title implies a new beginning, also seems like a summation of all that has gone before.