Secret history

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For other uses, see Secret history (disambiguation).

A secret history (or shadow history) is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real (or known) history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed or forgotten.

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[edit] Secret histories of the real world

Originally secret histories were designed as non-fictional, revealing or claiming to reveal the truth behind the "spin": the exemplar is the Anecdota of Procopius of Caesarea (known for centuries as the Secret History), which portrays the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian I to the great disadvantage of the Emperor, his wife and some of his court.[1] Another is the Secret History of the Mongols. Secret histories can range from standard historical revisionism with proper critical reexamination of historical facts to negative historical revisionism wherein facts are deliberately omitted, suppressed or distorted. An example of the latter would be the denial of the Holocaust.

[edit] Fictional secret histories

Secret history is sometimes used in a long-running science fiction or fantasy universe to preserve continuity with the present by reconciling paranormal, anachronistic, or otherwise notable but unrecorded events with what actually happened in known history.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Secret history thrillers

A certain type of thriller can be defined as secret history. In such novels, a daring spy, assassin or commando nearly carries out a coup which would have drastically changed history as we know it. Since this is not alternate history but a secret event in our own history, the reader knows in advance that this attempt would be foiled, that all persons in the know would be sworn to secrecy and all evidence be consigned to a top secret archives, where supposedly it still is. Nevertheless, the plot fascinates many readers who want to see how close history comes to being changed (usually, very very close) and exactly how the attempt would be foiled.

Two highly successful novels are considered to have started this sub-genre:

These two novels set the framework for many later books: following step by step both the fiendishly clever, competent and ruthless perpetrator in carrying out his design (it is usually a man) and the equally clever and competent hunter, hot on his spoor throughout the book, but who would catch up with him only at the (very cataclysmic) end. Typically, historical figures – including very famous ones – appear in some key scenes, but are not major actors.

Many other novels of this type followed, most of them with World War II backgrounds. Follet himself published at least two others:

Works of other writers fitting within this type include:

  • Enigma by Robert Harris: an embittered code-breaker nearly betrays to Nazi Germany the vital and closely guarded secret that the Allies are able to read its secret messages.
  • The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins: German commandos nearly succeed in kidnapping British Prime Minister Winston Churchill out of wartime England.
  • The Last Crossing by Harvey Ardman: German agents nearly succeed in sinking the French luxury liner SS Normandie in late 1939, with 3000 passengers on board including many VIPs.
  • The Day They Stole the Queen Mary by Terence Hughes: German prisoners of war transported on board the RMS Queen Mary mutiny and nearly succeed in capturing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his entire entourage, who are also travelling on the same ship; with this ploy foiled, the German mastermind escapes to plot again, and very nearly succeeds in assassinating Churchill (see [1]).
  • The Romanov Succession by Brian Garfield: taking advantage of the 1941 Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, Russian exiles attempt to assassinate Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and restore the monarchy.
  • The Night Letter by Paul Spike: In 1940, Nazi agents nearly succeed in blackmailing U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt into not running for a third term.
  • The Berlin Warning by Nicholas Guild: Nazi Germany in October 1941 nearly succeeds in betraying its Japanese ally and warning the US of the impending Pearl Harbor attack – which would have prevented the US entering the war.
  • The Ninth Man by John Lee: a few years later, a Nazi agent penetrates the White House and nearly succeeds in assassinating Roosevelt.
  • Stalag Texas, also by John Lee: escaped German prisoners nearly succeed in destroying the American nuclear laboratory at Los Alamos.
  • The Scorpion's Sting by Edward A. Politz, Jr.: Nazi Germany does manage to build a nuclear bomb in 1945, and a U-boat nearly succeeds in using it to destroy Boston and thus stave off Germany's final defeat.
  • In the 2006 historical detective novel, "The Janissary Tree" by John Goodwin , a power-mad Ottoman general in 1836 nearly succeeds in overthrowing Sultan Mehmet II and proclaiming a republic almost 90 years in advance of Ataturk.

Different types of secret history thriller include:

  • The Leader and the Damned by Colin Forbes: Adolf Hitler was assassinated in 1943 but his death was kept secret and the man who led Nazi Germany in the last two years of the war was a double.
  • XPD by Len Deighton: Winston Churchill was far more of an appeaser than official history records, and in June 1940 he had secret meeting with Hitler to discuss peace on the basis of recognizing the German domination of Europe; decades later, the documents recording this shameful secret are the subject of an intensive and deadly power struggle.
  • An Exchange of Eagles by Own Sela: in 1940, Nazi Germany and the United States both have nuclear programs advanced enough that both powers would have full nuclear arsenals by 1943 and would be likely to use them, turning World War II into a nuclear holocaust; but two courageous officers, an American and a German, make a personal pact to sabotage and retard their countries' respective programs – thus creating the history we know, where nuclear arms appeared on the scene only at the very end of the war, and destruction was limited to two Japanese cities rather than the entire world.

[edit] Secret histories of fictional worlds

"Retcon", alteration of the canonical account of past events in serial fiction, often employs aspects of secret history. A seeming continuity breach might be "revealed" to alter the truth of what readers were previously led to believe was a definitive story. A retcon might equally well convert an established history into a secret history. Such transformations occur with particular frequency in long-running superhero comic books.

[edit] Examples

  • When Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Final Problem" he fully intended to kill off Sherlock Holmes and write no further books and stories about him. Faced with massive pressure and protests by the famous detective's fans, he finally gave in. "The Adventure of the Empty House" revealed that Holmes did not die after all, and recounted a secret history of three years in which Holmes had been wandering the world while everybody – including even his close friend Dr. Watson – believed him to be dead.
  • Remembrance of the Daleks also alludes to hidden fictional history, establishing that during the events of An Unearthly Child the First Doctor had in his possession a super-weapon, the Hand of Omega stolen from his own people, the Time Lords. The story also implies that he knew of the Daleks before he "first" met them.
  • Alan Moore has offered many revisionist histories of known works.
    • During the revival of Miracleman in the 1980s, he showed that the original lighthearted adventures had taken place in a virtual reality.
    • In Lost Girls, he reveals events of Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan as fantasies invented to cover up memories of childhood sexual abuse.
    • He revised Swamp Thing's origin twice, revealing the title character's origin not as an altered human but a sentient plant which had absorbed a dead human's memories. Later, he established Swamp Thing as a supernatural plant elemental, rather than a science-based mutated vegetation.
    • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the histories of various characters differ from the books in which they previously appeared, especially their deaths (notably Allan Quatermaine, Dr Jekyll and the Invisible Man); according to Moore's tale, the books contain errors.
    • In From Hell, Moore revises the Jack the Ripper murders as being part of a grand conspiracy running through various organizations and social classes in London (the 1979 movie Murder by Decree had a similar premise).

[edit] See also

[edit] External article

  1. ^ The Secret History, English translation (Dewing, 1935) at LacusCurtius