The Alt-Hist File: Age of Confusion: Season 2

We’re already over a month into the new year, and that means I need to get around following up on my reviews. Today’s review is the first step in that direction. There isn’t much more to add, so let’s get straight to it. We’re taking a look at season 2 of Age of Confusion. 

To recap, Age of Confusion is an alternate history podcast, but told in the style of an non-fiction history podcast. It imagines a world where John. F. Kennedy survived his assassination attempt, and examines how history changes from there. Last time, we left off with the election of George Romney in 1968. Romney takes office in a time of change and turmoil. The Counterculture Movement is in full swing, and will bring big changes to the American cultural landscape. Meanwhile, Soviet Premier Alexander Shelepin is gaging Romney’s character. Shelepin, and his counterparts in East Germany, have been eyeing West Berlin hungrily. Back in America, both political parties are already focusing on the 1972 Election. It is an age of wonders, it is an age of terrors, but above all else, it is an Age of Confusion.

For those who have missed my review of season 1, you can find that over here. I thought that season 1 of Age of Confusion was absolutely fantastic. Season 2 not only matched its predecessor in terms of quality, but also exceeded it. Sean Munger built upon the groundwork he laid in season 1 to great effect. This was a season where a lot of shoes dropped. The intro to each episode lets us know that three things are going to happen: West Berlin will be invaded by East Germany, Robert F. Kennedy will be elected President, and something is going differently for the Apollo program.

First, let’s talk about President George Romney. Sean portrays Romney as a good man at heart, and someone who genuinely wants what is best for the America. However, that goodness is also Romany’s biggest weakness. Romney simply doesn’t know how to play the game of politics, and quickly finds himself way over his head. Romney doesn’t get as much flack for his Mormonism as you might think, but I think this makes sense. Most Americans had never heard of Mormons in the late 1960/early 1970s. Romney also specifically speaks of his strong Christian faith, but not specifically his Mormonism. In other views, Romney is a strong supporter of civil rights for African-Americans and Native Americans.

The one true success of Romney’s presidency is that he gets Medicare passed. JFK was unable to do this, as he did in our world, due to focusing on getting the Comprehensive Civil Rights Act passed. Romney takes office in the middle of a recession, and he argues that Medicare will help take financial burdens off of the American people. He also allows individuals age twenty-five and under to be covered by Medicare. Medicare is a big hit with the American people, but Republicans are absolutely furious. Many claim than Romney isn’t a true Republican. Romney winds up pretty much destroying the moderate wing of the Republican Party. The 1960s and 1970s were when the Democrats and Republicans solidified into their current forms. Before that, both parties had members from across the political spectrum. Kennedy, was a Democrat, and supported Civl Rights, but he also had to fight against members of his own party who opposed the Civil Rights Act.

I liked that this season also took time to focus on alternate history related to pop culture. A band called Refraction becomes America’s answer to The Beatles. Sean says that he had this happen because he was unsatisfied with how America never produced a band capable of rivaling The Beatles. The members of Refraction collaborates with director Frank Perry to make a movie adaption of the novel On the Road. Said adaptation is a massive hit, and wins a bunch of Academy Awards.

Meanwhile, Elvis Presley’s wife introduces him to L. Ron Hubbard. Elvis becomes very close to Hubbard, converts to Scientology, and donates a bunch of money to the Church of Scientology. I’m not sure if I can see this happening. Elvis was an extremely devout Christian in our world. In fact, he refused to be called The King because he thought it was blasphemous. Priscilla Beaulieu Presley did become a Scientologist in our world, but that was after Elvis’ death in 1977. Though, I guess anything is theoretically possible.

The outcome of the Moon Race is…underwhelming. Sean said that the Space Race wouldn’t be getting much focus, but it feels like it was tacked on almost as an afterthought. Romney guts NASA’s budget at a critical moment, and this allows the Soviets to get their act together and land a manned mission on the Moon first. There were a lot of politicians in our world who wanted to defund NASA on the grounds that the money could be better spent on programs on Earth. Walter Mondale is one example that comes to mind. It is also theoretically possible that the N1 rocket could have gotten a Soyuz craft to the Moon. So, this is a reasonably believable scenario. Still, it could easily have been an episode in and of itself. Actually, it could potentially be multiple episodes. I can’t help but feel that there was a massive missed opportunity here.

Let’s move onto something that was most certainly not a missed opportunity. East Germany is concerned about the brain drain they suffer thanks to West Berlin. Alexander Shelepin agrees, and decides that the time is right to finally invade West Berlin. Shelepin deemed Romney to be a weak-willed pushover, and didn’t expect any serious consequences. The war machine springs to life, and both West and East are on high alert. Soviet and East German troops move into West Berlin, while NATO forces mobilize to counter them. Citizens on the East Coast of America are told to head for the bomb shelters and prepare for the worst. The military is at DEFCON 1, and President Romney must decide if he should push the button or not.

Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, pretty much the entire presidential cabinet is away on various trips. Romney takes some time to pray and makes his choice. He knows that Shelepin is a madman who will make good on his threats of retaliation. Romney decides he will let the Soviets have West Berlin, but American forces will evacuate anyone, regardless of nationality, who wants to be evacuated. Hundreds of thousands of citizens are evacuated from both halves of Berlin. More importantly, all of the intellectuals and educated workers are successfully evacuated. And so the Berlin Wall falls twenty years ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, it falls because Berlin is united under communist rule.

Shelepin technically succeeded, as now Berlin is united under East German rule, but the brain drain is even worse than if he’d done nothing. A victory, but a rather pyrrhic one. On the other hand, relations between the NATO nations are seriously strained. West Germany is furious that America threw them under the bus. Britain and France also fear that America may betray them to the Soviets.

Still, Shelepin does find other bits of success. He manages to pretty much completely reverse the Sino-Soviet Split. Shelepin also enacts a new wave of political purges, but not quite to the extent that Stalin did. He doesn’t have enough charisma, and isn’t enough of a people person, to start a cult of personality like Stalin did. The Chinese Cultural Revolution goes pretty much exactly as it did in our world. The biggest difference is that Mao dies about five years ahead of schedule. That’s definitely going to have an impacts on future seasons of Age of Confusion.

As you might imagine, the events of the Berlin Crisis play a major role in the 1972 Presidential Election. It comes down to Ronald Reagan vs. Robert F. Kennedy. As for how that line-up come to be, I’ll leave that for you to discover. Obviously, we know from the intro that Kennedy wins. Ultimately, it was the war scare that swing things. Americans wanted someone who was going to deescalate things with the Soviets, not ramp them up. George Wallace also ran again, but only managed to win three states this time round. Of course, the real fun is going to start next season, when RFK officially takes office.

That covers all of the major points I wanted to discuss. There’s still several bits that I didn’t mention, but I’ll leave those for you to discover. Season 1 of Age of Confusion was amazing, but it was just the warm up act. Season 2 is where the fun really starts. Sean has said he wants to take some time off to rest before working on season 3. I can respect that. It is import to avoid overexerting yourself in your creative endeavors. There’s no shame in taking time off to rest and recuperate. And hey, based on how season 2 turned out, I know that season 3 and 4 will be absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to listen to them whenever they come out.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

The Alt-Hist File: Age of Confusion: Season 1

I'm a big fan of historical fiction and alternate history, but I don't listen to very many history podcast. That is, podcast where it's usually one or two guys talking about various historical events. I find them to generally be low quality, interchangeable in terms of style and execution, and just not very good, barring a few notable exceptions. That's what makes the podcast we'll be looking at today so notable. It is alternate history, but told in the style of a non-fiction history podcast. Yet despite this it manages to be incredibly entertaining and engaging. What it this podcast? It is Age of Confusion.

What would have happened if President John F. Kennedy had survived his assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas? Perhaps it would be an age of wonders, or an age of terrors, but it certainly would be an Age of Confusion. Age of Confusion tells the story of just such a world. It chronicles the alternate history of America, and the world at large, from 1963-1983, starting with JFK dodging a literal bullet.

Age of Confusion is created, written, and produced by Sean Munger. He's a professional historian. He also runs the Second Decade podcast, which is about things that happened between 1810-1820; as well as Green Screen, an environmental movie review podcast. I first became aware of Age of Confusion when I read about it in the weekly new relates thread on the r/audiodrama subreddit. It looked promising, I gave it a listen, and now here we are.

As I've previously mentioned, due to the nature of this podcast, Sean has to carry the entire production all by himself. This is no small task, and there is a lot that can easily go wrong. Thankfully, I'm happy to report that Sean succeeds with flying colors. He presents the alternate history in a sort of narrative non-fiction format. Understandable, given that he's the one controlling the course of events, and it makes for an entertaining listening experience. It also helps that Sean's voice is very easy to listen to.

On the podcast's website, each episode page has a segment where Sean compares how things when in real history. He also uses these segments to explain his though process, and why he chose to make the changes that he did. I think that this is really great, and I applaud him for going that extra mile. Perhaps these segments, combined with the show proper, will get listeners to think more about the real history of the era. I know it has gotten me thinking.

The style of Age of Confusion reminds me of the novel For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga by Robert Sobel. If is an alternate history novel set in a world where the American Revolution failed, and is notable for being told in the style of a non-fiction history book. It is a novel that proved quite influential on the online alternate history fandom. If you can't find the book itself, I recommend checking out the very detailed Sobel Wiki, which is dedicated to the world to For Want of a Nail.

So, how is the alternate history. I think it should be clear by now that Sean pays a great deal of care when crafting the alternate history of Age of Confusion. You can tell that he pays considerable attention to details. Why don't we go over a few highlights of this seasons? I should add that, every five episodes or so, Sean puts out a recap episode to help new listeners catch-up with the story so far, and to provide a refresher for returning listeners.

The first major changes happens when Kennedy returns to Washington DC. Congress moves to vote on the 1963 Civil Rights Act, and segregationist politicians successfully kill the bill in the senate. As you might imagine, this has major ripples. Martin Luther King Jr loses a lot of his clout within the Civil Rights Movement. He'd been banking on Kennedy getting the Civil Right Act passed. Many in the movement also begin to question King's non-violent methods. Instead, the movement pivots towards Stokely Carmichael. He was one of the founders of the Black Power Movement. He encourages Blacks to go on strikes and hold sit-in demonstrate how much of the economy is dependent on Black people. He also says he wants the strikes and sit-in in Northern cities as well as Southern cities. That way, it will show that the struggle for Civil Rights isn't just a Southern issue.

The series starts off with a bang, and I think Sean does a good case for his choices in altering history. In our world, Lyndon B. Johnson was able to use Kennedy's tragic death to push the Civil Rights Act through Congress. He framed it as Kennedy's legacy. In a world where Kennedy survives, there is no guarantee that the 1963 Civil Rights Act is going to get passed; especially if Congress votes on it in December.

I can also see MLK falling out of favor with the Civil Rights Movement. Even in our own timeline, King was starting to fall out of favor with the movement around the time he was assassinated. Sean has confirmed that King will not be assassinated in the world of Age of Confusion. It was only a minor mention, but we see that Malcolm X also survived his assassination attempt. He's been seriously reconsidering the direction of his life. Sean takes the view that assassinations are disruptions to the flow of history, and he wants to imagine a world where the major assassinations of the mid-twentieth century never happened.

Sean also has a very interesting method for determining the outcome of elections. He uses Thirteen Keys to the White House system devised by historian Allan Lichtman. They determine who will be president based on factors such as which party is in power, what were the midterm gains and/or loses, were there any scandals or major policy changes, how charismatic are the candidates, and so on.

It's actually really interesting stuff. The Thirteen Keys system has successful predicted every presidential election from 1984 to 2020. The only exception was the 2000 Election. To be fair, Florida having faulty voting machines was a factor nobody saw coming. The Thirteen Key successfully predicted the election of Donald Trump, something that most other analysts said was impossible, as well as his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden.

The first application of the Thirteen Keys is applied to the 1964 Election. Kennedy faces off against Nelson Rockefeller and ekes out a narrator victory. However, what I found most interesting was that a segregationist politician managed to carry Mississippi. Third party candidates almost never carry states in elections. The two main exceptions were Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, and George Wallace's segregationist platform in 1968. I figured this would have major ramifications for the 1969 election, but we'll get to that in a minute.

A new Civil Rights Act is proposed, and this time, Kennedy fights harder. There had been previous attempts to get a Civil Rights Act passed prior to 1963, but they always got defeated. On the whole, Kennedy did support civil rights for minorities, but he had to contend with the segregationist win of the Democrat Party. He also didn't want thing to move so fast that they scared white voters. To be fair, most other white politicians sympathetic to Civil Rights tended to hold this attitude. Although, one of Kennedy's motivations to fight for the new Civil Rights Act is that it will be his legacy.

The Comprehensive Civil Rights Act officially gets signed into law in 1966. As the name suggests, it's actually a somewhat expanded version of the 1963 Civil Rights Act. For example, one its provisions is the establishment of a national department to investigate instances of police brutality. It will be interesting to see how thinks turn out in future seasons now that we have the Comprehensive Civil Rights Act.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union has been experiencing some political turmoil. A coup was successfully carried out against Nikita Khrushchev. There's a lot of squabbling and in-fighting, but once the dust settles, a hardline Stalinist named Alexander Shelepin. He wants to undo Khrushchev's reforms and take a more aggressive approach to the United States. The beginning to each episode begins with snippets from in-universe new reels and recordings. One of these is a broadcast from West Berlin saying that East German tanks are invading the city. My guess is that, at some point in the future, Shelepin is going to put pressure on East Germany to retake West Berlin. Also, the podcast cover art is a collage several pictures, include a hydrogen bomb exploding. That has...troubling implications, to say the least.

Meanwhile, things heat up in Vietnam like they did in our world. Sean makes a good case that Kennedy would probably choose to commit American troops to the conflict due to not wanting to look soft on communism. Albeit, Kennedy doesn't commit nearly the number than LBJ did in our timeline. At the same time, Sean also makes a strong case that Kennedy would pull America out of Vietnam sooner than in our timeline. It would still be viewed as a tragedy, but there would far less loss of life.

One aspect about JFK that isn't often discussed is that he had Addison's Disease. In our timeline, Kennedy actually lied to voters during the 1960 Presidential Election, and claimed to not have Addison's. Oh, you better believe this comes back to bite him in the ass, and leads to a major scandal. Again, this is further proof of the attention to details that Sean puts into Age of Confusion.

Now we're going to talk about the 1968 Election. It was the most recent episode, as of this writing, so I figured I should maybe do a spoiler warning for it. So, if you don't want spoilers, skip down a few paragraphs.

Last chance, you sure you want to keep going?

Well, if everyone who wants out is gone, let's continue.

Lyndon B. Johnson has his sights set on being Kennedy's successor, and he wins the Democratic nomination. The Republicans do some more scuffling, but ultimately nominate George Romney as their pick. In our timeline, his son Willard, known by his nickname Mitt, unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012. Romney runs into some trouble because he was born in Mexico, and is accused of not being a real American. However, his parents were both American citizens, so it is a moot point. I can't decide if it is funny or groan-worthy how this parallels similar accusations leveled against Barack Obama in our world.

Personally, I'm amazed that Romney's Mormon faith didn't prove to be more of a stumbling block. In our world, JFK was frequently hounded about his Catholicism throughout the 1960 Presidential Election. There was a still a fair bit of anti-Catholic sentiment in America at the time. Sean justifies things going easier for Romney by having him downplay his Mormonism. Romney speaks of his strong Christian faith, but almost never specifically identifies as Mormon. That said, Sean has hinted that this will come back to bite Romney in the ass, and he'll be involved in a scandal.

From the intro, we know that Bobby Kennedy will become the 37th President, and JFK was 35th. So, the only question now is will RFK win in 1972 or 1976? Well, that and how many terms will Romney serve.

Meanwhile, George Wallace runs on a platform of segregation and repelling the Comprehensive Civil Rights Act. He chooses Strom Thurmond, rather than Curtis LeMay, as his running mate. Troublingly, they do even better than Wallace did in our timeline. They win every former Confederate state, minus Florida, but plus West Virginia. They didn't bother campaigning in Florida because they thought it was too full of Jews and Cubans. They almost succeed in throwing the election to Congress, but Romney manages to get just enough electoral votes to win.

I would assume that there will be no attempt on Wallace's life in 1972. That is, if we are to go by the theme of assassinations never happening. In our world, Wallace was not killed, but he was paralyzed from the waist down. This caused him to reevaluate his life, and eventually lead him to renounce his racist views. In fact, towards the end of his life, Wallace worked toward the betterment of racial relations. If the assassination attempt never happens, Wallace will probably continue to fight for segregation. That's bound to have impacts future down the line.

Sean has stated that there won't be very many episodes about the Space Race. I guess it's going to go more or less as it did in our world. That said, there are some differences. The Apollo 1 disaster never happens, but something equally tragic happens. A Saturn V rocket, with crew already loaded into it, explodes on the launch pad. I bring this up because it is what costs Johnson the election. Much as in our world, Johnson really pushed NASA to kick the Apollo program into gear. He does this in hopes that the Moon Landing will happen after he is elected, and he can take credit for it. In the world of Age of Confusion, however, Johnson is under scrutiny for pressuring NASA to ignore safety regulations.

And so that is everything of note so far. It is very exciting stuff, and we're just getting started. Sean said that he played things safe with season one. He stuck fairly close to the actual historical record. However, in future seasons, things are going to diverge much more. I can't wait to see how it plays out.

The only suggestion I have, and I admit it is a minor one, is that perhaps Sean could vary up the style of the show a bit. I really enjoy the opening of each episode where we get snippets from news bulletins and recordings from the world of Age of Confusion. Perhaps, in future episode, he could play some extended clips in the middle of the episodes. I think I might add to the immersion of the podcast. Maybe also bring on a fellow historian, either a real one or an actor, to discuss in-universe events. Or perhaps interview people who witnessed the events of episodes. Obviously, they'd be played by actors. These would also be great ways to build the immersion.

Of course, if Sean chooses to keep the show as is, well, I know I'll be perfectly happy. I also hope that you give Age of Confusion a try. It is an alternate history audio drama in the style of a non-fiction podcast. It is a really creative and interesting twists on alternate history audio dramas.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.