"Provenance is the alternate history of art, " Ms. Reist explained.

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Instead, he prodded the artists to think about a version of the alternate-history style that might exist on a completely different world.

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Some alternate-history novels have envisioned a separate Texas, notably 1990's "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, which explores what might have happened to the world had computers been perfected in Britain a century earlier.

WSJ: In Texas, the Secession Movement Blooms in Fiction

Texas secession fiction falls into a long line of what-if books exploring alternate versions of history.

WSJ: In Texas, the Secession Movement Blooms in Fiction

The entertainment industry, however, has been known to tamper with our historical memories, changing them to fit a story or to create an entirely alternate version of history.

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John Buescher, a researcher at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, has championed alternate histories as a way to teach real history.

WSJ: In Texas, the Secession Movement Blooms in Fiction