Such maps can also help us see the past and present with fresh eyes. For example, any alternate history is not simply a point of divergence, followed by seat-of-the-pants conjecture.

The commies were ready to take over Central Park. A trove of secret, highly-detailed Soviet maps from the early 1980s shows street level views of New York, Washington, D.C., and other major cities … ...

When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991, Russia lost a lot of its influence. Now Mr Putin appears intent on turning the clock back more than 30 years to the Soviet Union’s heyday.

Combs argues that Soviet leaders lived in an "alternate universe" whose character and content took form from the ideology they professed and suggests that their undoing occurred as a result of the ...

For example, below is an alternate history map that looks like something out of The Economist magazine, followed by another lovingly-crafted map of what the Middle East might look like, if World ...