Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here's a book that shouldn't be forgotten. Especially for fans of Connie Willis or Jodi Taylor, fans of historians going back in time because -- COME ON, WHAT HISTORIAN WOULDN'T WANT TO GO BACK IN TIME?

More importantly, the time this came out in the early 1950's should be an interesting fact. The kinds of time travel that had come out before were more adventure and less introspective. This one is very introspective. It's also very imaginative, rather dystopian, carefully philosophical and skeptical, and massively bookish. The main character is a serious observer and reader, and this is great because most of the book takes place in a world where the South won the Civil War.

The world is very different. Darker, rather horrible. And yet, intellectuals and skeptics do tend to find their way, even if it is in poverty and uneasy circumstances.

I'll say this for certain: this is one of the best great-grandaddy of all alternate timeline books. It's not an adventure. It's a philosophical discussion and an ultimate show/don't tell careful exploration of what might have been.

I'm very impressed.

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