Harry Turtledove’s acclaimed alternate history series
began with a single question: What if the South had won
the Civil War? Now, seventy years have passed since the
first War Between the States. The North American continent
is locked in a battle of politics, economies, and
moralities. In a world that has already felt the soul-
shattering blow of the Great War, North America is the
powder keg that could ignite another global conflict—
complete with a new generation of killing
machines.
“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” In 1934, the
chant echoes across the Confederate States of America, a
country born of bloodshed and passion, stretching from
Mexico to Virginia. But while people use the word to greet
each other in the streets, the meaning of “Freedom” has
become increasingly unclear.
Jake Featherston,
leader of the ruling Freedom Party, has won power—and is
taking his country and the world to the edge of an abyss.
Charismatic, shrewd, and addicted to conflict, Featherston
is whipping the Confederate States into a frenzy of
hatred. Blacks are being rounded up and sent to prison
camps, and the persecution has just begun. Featherston has
forced the United States to give up its toeholds in
Florida and Kentucky, and as the North stumbles through a
succession of leaders, from Socialist Hosea Blackford to
Herbert Hoover and now Al Smith, Featherston is feeling
his might. With the U.S.A. locked in a bitter, bloody
occupation of Canada, facing an intractable rebellion in
Utah, and fatigued from a war in the Pacific against
Japan, Featherston may pursue one dangerous proposition
above all: that he can defeat the U.S.A. in an all-out
war.
The Victorious Opposition is a drama of
leaders and followers, spies and traitors, lovers and
soldiers. From California to Canada, from combat on the
high seas to the secret meetings where former slaves plot
a desperate strategy for survival, Harry Turtledove has
created a human portrait of a world in upheaval. The third
book in his monumental American Empire series, The
Victorious Opposition is a novel of ideas, action, and
surprise—and an unforgettable re-imagining of history
itself.