Evans is at his best on questions of historical causation; …

Evans is at his best on questions of historical causation; what was necessary for events to happen the way they did? . . . Altered Pasts brings an impressive historical intelligence to bear on what are too often dismissed as parlour games. . . . Evans makes a bullishly enjoyable primer in the history of what might have been, but it seems unlikely to succeed in making subjunctive history a thing of the past.