Quentin Deluermoz is professor of history at the University of Paris. Pierre Singaravélou is professor of history at King’s College London and at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne. Stephen W. Sawyer is professor of history at the American University of Paris.
“Our political activities are based on the presumption that choices
matter. But historians rarely consider roads not taken and
the chain of consequences that a different direction at a crucial
turning point could have had. Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre
Singaravélou push us to pose such questions, and hence to
reconsider how we think about history.”—Frederick Cooper, author of
Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference: Historical
Perspectives
“In this wonderful book, Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre Singaravelou
show "counterfactual history" has itself a long and rich history.
Ever since Tite-Live, Edward Gibbon, Louis Geoffroy and Niall
Ferguson, social actors and intellectuals have been describing some
of the many historical paths and bifurcations which did not happen.
The book offers a fascinating analysis of this body of discourse,
its uses and misuses. A must-read by two of the most innovative
historians of their generation.”—Thomas Piketty, author of Capital
and Ideology
“Impeccably documented, A Past of Possibilities provides
an impressively broad survey of the usages of counterfactual
reasoning in various disciplines, weaves epistemological
reflections with critical assessments, spells out methodological
recommendations, and outlines how these can inform the teaching of
history in various settings: a remarkable and multi-faceted
achievement.”— Ivan Ermakoff, author of Ruling Oneself Out: A
Theory of Collective Abdications
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