Book Log 2011 #43: Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield


Political commentator Greenfield takes a stab at three alternative political histories in this book. The first story sees the planned assassination of JFK by Richard Pavlick succeed, leading to an early LBJ presidency. The second has RFK assassination failing, and looks at what would have come after. The final story has Ford winning the 1976 election.

The upshot of all three stories, really, is that JFK and RFK were great. In the first story LBJ faces pretty much the same issues as JFK did, but with less success. In the second story, RFK's presidency has its bobbles, but allows us to avoid Watergate and other problems. Neither really influences the third story, though it does emphasize that Teddy was not cut from the same cloth as his brothers.

The stories are written well enough, though I found myself getting annoyed at some of the cameos and cutesy coincidences. I know they're done in an attempt to make the stories more real, but when Hillary Rodham Clinton shows up as a White House lawyer who catches a sitting President getting orally pleased by an intern, I find that we're crossed the line to gratuitous.

I don't think these are the best stories compared to those written by dedicated alt-history authors, but they're not bad for someone riffing on his day job.