"Must and Shall" | |
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Author | Harry Turtledove |
First Appearance | Asimov's |
Reprinted |
Nebula Awards 32 (1998); Roads Not Taken (1998) |
Collected |
Counting Up, Counting Down The Best of Harry Turtledove |
Illustrator | Bruce Jensen |
Genre(s) | Alternate History |
Publication date | November, 1995 |
"Must and Shall" is a short story which first appeared in Asimov's in November, 1995. It was subsequently reprinted in Nebula Awards 32, edited by Jack Dann, Harcourt Brace, 1998; Roads Not Taken, edited by Stanley Schmidt and Gardner Dozois, Del Rey, 1998; Counting Up, Counting Down; Del Rey, 2002 and The Best of Harry Turtledove, 2021. It is an alternate history story set in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1942, 78 years after the point of divergence, depicting a world in which President Abraham Lincoln is killed in 1864, and the Federal government institutes a more vindictive occupation in the South. Turtledove has described this situation as a metaphor for Northern Ireland in North America. "Must and Shall" was nominated for the Sidewise Award, the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
In a brief prologue, while he is inspecting the ramparts at Fort Stevens, President Lincoln is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter on July 12, 1864. His successor, Hannibal Hamlin, promises a harsh retribution, including the execution of all Confederate higher-ups in his inaugural.
By the time the story takes place, the South has been, for all intents and purposes, an occupied territory of the United States for 77 years. The notion of a Confederacy continues underground as a focus of loyalty for Southern whites. The Federal Government can only count on the support of the black population, a status quo enforced by the 16th amendment. Otherwise, the divergence from OTL is somewhat localized to the U.S., while the wider world has carried on in the exact same way as OTL. World War I appears to have followed roughly the same course as OTL, and World War II is in progress, with the same set of combatants.
Against this backdrop, Agent Neil Michaels of the FBS travels to New Orleans to stop an armed insurrection supported by Germany, following a series of clues and dead informants in a race against time.
See Also[]
- Southern Victory, a multi-volume series that begins with a Confederate victory in the American Civil War. After several twists and turns, the United States again gets the upper hand over the C.S., and the series ultimately ends with a brutal U.S. occupation of the C.S. in 1944.
- "Ready for the Fatherland", an alternate history that follows a story structure similar to "Must and Shall"; in the prologue, Erich von Manstein assassinates Adolf Hitler in 1943. The main action takes place decades later in a world even more morally ambiguous than our own. Both were reprinted in Counting Up, Counting Down.
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