ȂȈȃ Partʺʺ: Politics and PhilosophyȀȈȂȈ–ȀȈȃȄ—led me, along with a friend’s young son who was accompa-
nying me to a conference in Italy, to make a side trip to Sarajevo. Ļere
we saw where Gavrilo Princip stood when firing the shot that killed Franz
Ferdinand—by a building where a laudatory commemorative plaque was
subsequently mounted and a museum established. I wondered: what if
the Archduke’s car had not made a wrong turn? What if Princip’s shot
had missed, if even only by inches? An assassination attempt had already
failed earlier the same day, just barely. Ļis one might also have failed.
Still, the assassination did not make war inevitable. Suspecting Ser-
bian complicity, Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum imposing
drastic conditions: it must collaborate in an investigation and suppress
further terrorist agitation. Serbia came surprisingly close to agreeing com-
pletely; but Austria-Hungary, unwilling (like France inȀȇȆǿ) to take a
near-yes for an answer, started a war, and alliances fed contagion. What
if Austria-Hungary had been satisfied with the near-yes, or if Serbia had
totally complied?
Beyond the questions it poses, conjectural history can contribute to
understanding oneself as well as the roles of other people and of chance
in human affairs. When I was in high school I boughtHugo’s Spanish Sim-
plifiedand a few of the Haldeman-Julius Company’s cheap little books on
religion and on the international language Esperanto. Miss Connor, my
history teacher, steered me to the economics of Henry George and to a
book about Italian history. Ļese little episodes affected my later life in
unforeseeable ways. Miss Connor was what we would now call an out-
spoken left-liberal; still, she was a conscientious and inspiring teacher.
Without her influence, I might not have majored in economics in college
and gone on for a Ph.D. in economics. Meanwhile, the little Haldeman-
Julius books aroused my interests in religion and in an international lan-
guage, both of which I have discussed inLiberty(OctoberȁǿǿȆand Jan-
uary/Februaryȁǿǿȇ).
Perhaps most accidental, yet significant, was the influence of Hugo’s
Spanish book. I went on learning Spanish, entirely without any formal
classes. At Auburn University I joined the “Friends of Guatemala,” a dor-
mant then resurrected weekly Spanish conversation group, the origin of
whose name nobody could remember. All but two of our group’s mem-
bers soon dropped out, but Luis Dopico and I carried on, eventually
having our Spanish conversations at dinner once a week. I visited him
once in his home city in Spain. He now lives in North Carolina and has
dual citizenship. I talk with him by phone in Spanish for about an hour