A Farewell To Carrot Cake (And Other Things Lost Without World War I)
This is the conclusion to an All Things Considered series that imagines a counterfactual history of World War I.
This year marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. What started as a beef between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia unleashed a clash that brought in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, England and eventually the United States.
All Things Considered has been underlining the war's historical importance by imagining the world if it had never happened — how would politics, science, literature, music have been different without that conflict?
We asked listeners to carry this idea of a counterfactual history and received over 1,500 thoughtful — and often hilarious — stories.
We've included a small selection below; some have been edited for length.
World Leaders
Josef Stalin would never have been more than a hairy, disaffected Georgian coffee shop habitue. He might have owned a shop in Tbilisi, and helped to care for his aging parents. He would have married a village girl and possibly become a drunken lout. At best, he would have become a town alderman.
Marcy Troy
Without a revolutionary cause, Fidel Castro focuses on improving his fastball and becomes a journeyman pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of the American League, helping pave the way for more Cubans to play in the United States.
Rich
There is no Harding "return to normalcy," and Governor James M. Cox of Ohio is elected president in 1920 and Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected Vice President. As Vice President, Franklin Roosevelt does not vacation in Campobello and does not contract polio, or, if he does, he receives treatment and does not become paralyzed. Cox is remembered as a better-than-average president, and Franklin D. Roosevelt is forgotten as someone who was vice president in the 1920s.
James Norquist
Benito Mussolini eschews teaching and politics, choosing instead to open up a small coffee/pastry shop in Switzerland called "Bene, Bene!" He goes on to write several dessert cookbooks, which become very popular in Spain and Italy. While on a book signing tour he is given the nickname "Il dolce" by his fans.
Charles Foerster
Woodrow Wilson's nativism policies destroying all hyphenated Americans' culture never happens. He loses mid-term elections and falls into obscurity. German-Americans continue to help create and build 20th Century America, resulting in a dual language nation with strong ties to more European homelands other than England.
Roland Kerner