Book excerpt: Fiction. Speculative Fiction. At critical moments in world history, every political, spiritual, and cultural leader foresaw a different destiny. Columbus planned a Western sea route to Asia; Hitler applied to art school twice; Joan of Arc prophesied that she would become a mother. It is out of their failures that history itself is made. But what if the history-makers succeeded in the fulfillment of their best-laid plans? In PAGES FROM THE TEXTBOOK OF ALTERNATE HISTORY, Phong Nguyen explores a myriad of pasts in which these icons of history made a different choice, and got what they wished for.