What if Adolf Hitler had realized his dream of an art career and never turned to politics? What if Judas had saved Jesus of Nazareth? What if Ho Chi Minh had leveraged his experience as a cook in a Harlem restaurant into a corporate empire selling oven-ready dessert pastries? Or if Benjamin Franklin had become a clergyman? Or if Napoleon had kept Louisiana for the French?

Phong Nguyen, author of the new book Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History, reimagines the biographies of a dozen of history’s heroes and villains, and explores how the world would be a far different place.

Nguyen teaches fiction and American literature at the University of Central Missouri.