Refighting Gettysburg

Mark Kleiman snarks on Newt Gingrich's new series. Professor Bainbridge defends. Nobody mentions that though the whole idea of the series is (obviously) to comment on all the "what-ifs" about Lee and Gettysburg historically, it's also meant to comment literarily on Come the Jubilee and other Gettysburg what-if stories.

But I'm not pushing myself to buy or read these sucker. I love history and I love sf, but on the whole, alternate history leaves me cold. Harry Turtledove exhausted my patience with this vein long ago, Days of Rice and Salt is big, and Baen Books is making a ton of money off 1632 and its sequels...but I don't care. I don't. Alternate history is a game, but you can only play it so long at a sitting.