Alternate history writing looks at "what if" scenarios; What if the Soviet Union won the Cold War? What if the Roman Empire never fell? It's not just interesting escapism; it also allows readers to look critically at the world they really live in and reflect on current events. Popular alternate history stories have even become major television shows or movies. Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel "The Man in the High Castle" is set in an alternate timeline where an assassin killed Franklin D. Roosevelt