Topic summary
Alternative history
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Alternate history.
Definition
Alternative history is similar to but distinct from secret history, which can be either fictional or non-fictional and recounts events that occurred in history (whether real or imagined) but which had no apparent effect on the recorded historical outcome. It is also thematically related to, but distinct from, counterfactual history, which is a form of historiography that explores what might have happened in order to better understand why events unfolded as they actually did.