Alternative history - Definition and Overview

Alternative history or alternate history can be:

• A History told from an alternative viewpoint, rather than from the view of imperialist, conqueror, or explorer. For example "A People's History of the United States" as a view sympathetic to indigenous to the Americas, or "Herstory" as a 'history from a female perspective.'
• The academic extrapolation of alternate outcomes of historical events: see virtual history (also known as counterfactual history)..
• A genre of science fiction: see Alternative history (fiction)
• Usually called 'historical revisionism, i.e. a construction of past events which is refuted by well documented, verifiable, and very broadly accepted sources. Such histories may tend to explain away their lack of scholarship or documentation on a conspiracy to erase such evidence.