A collection of essays on pivotal moments in American history includes Caleb Carr on America had there been no Revolution, and Robert Dallek on what might have happened if JFK had not been assassinated.

Might the Mayflower not have sailed? /Theodore K. Rabb -- William Pitt the Elder and the avoidance of the American revolution / Caleb Carr -- What the fog wrought : the Revolution's Dunkirk, August 29, 1776 / David McCullough -- "His accidency" John Tyler / Tom Wicker -- Lew Wallace and the ghosts of the Shunpike / Victor Davis Hanson -- If the lost order hadn't been lost : Robert E. Lee humbles the union, 1862 / James M. McPherson -- The Northwest conspiracy / Thomas Fleming -- Beyond the wildest dreams of John Wilkes Booth / Jay Winik -- The revolution of 1877 / Cecelia Holland -- The whale against the wolf : the Anglo-American War of 1896 / Andrew Roberts -- No Pearl Harbor : FDR delays the war / John Lukacs -- If Eisenhower had gone to Berlin / Antony Beevor -- Joe McCarthy's secret life / Ted Morgan -- If the U-2 hadn't flown / George Feifer -- The Cuban missile crisis : second holocaust / Robert L. O'Connell -- JFK lives / Robert Dallek -- What if Watergate were still just an upscale address? / awrence Malkin and John F. Stacks.