History Literature / BackInTheUSSA

%%* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Sergeant Grimshaw in "Teddy Bears' Picnic" does this.

* DullSurprise: At the climax of "Abdication Street"

* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Sergeant Grimshaw in "Teddy Bears' Picnic" does this.

* TheNeidermeyer: Captain Fisher, a.k.a. "Film/BillyLiar", in "Teddy Bears' Picnic".

* RedplicaBAron: The novel features the Red Baron assisting Mexican forces invading Texas, during a communist revolution in the United States led by Eugene Debs.

** A character comments that something was as strange as finding London Bridge in the Arizona desert.
** In "Teddy Bears' Picnic", Bob objects to William Hartnell being cast as Sgt. Grimshaw in TheFilmOfTheBook due to Hartnell being more well known as [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], and recommends Patrick Troughton instead, because Troughton comes off as a more sinister and threatening actor. There's a triple whammy here; both Hartnell ''and'' Troughton played the Doctor in the actual world, Troughton's version of the Doctor was actually a lot friendlier and nicer than Hartnell's version, and Hartnell actually ''did'' play Grimshaw in the movie he originally appeared in (''Film/CarryOnSergeant'').

* ColonelKurtzCopy: Basil Fotherington-Thomas (from the ''Literature/{{Molesworth}}'' books) fills the Kurtz role in "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a bizarre AlternateHistory retelling of ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.

* GoingNative: Basil Fotherington-Thomas (from the ''Literature/{{Molesworth}}'' books) fills the Kurtz role in "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a bizarre AlternateHistory retelling of ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. [[Literature/JustWilliam William Brown]] also fits as the soldier sent to kill Fotherington-Thomas who ends up joining him.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter:
** UsefulNotes/EugeneDebs plays an important role, as the Revolutionary that started it all. Significant liberties are taken about his personality.
* InSpiteOfANail: The American government and capitalism collapse in 1917 and Eugene Debs leads a Socialist revolution. After that things go much as in the USSR in our timeline, but with American figures -- e.g., Al Capone fills the role of Stalin, J. Edgar Hoover is the equivalent of Lavrentiy Beria, and Eliot Ness is an agent of the Federal Bureau of Ideology. Dissidents risk getting exiled to Alaska.

* AsianHookerStereotype: In "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" there is a Vietmanese prostitute nicknamed Vitmo Vingh who services the British troops and who embodies the stereotypes and dialogue of Asian hookers seen in films like ''Film/FullMetalJacket''.

* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: All over the place, with both real and fictional people. Al Capone is the American Stalin, Creator/KurtVonnegut is the American Gorbachev, and Trotsky's daughter is a commoner who marries the British Crown Prince. [[Creator/LRonHubbard Lafayette Hubbard]], [[Creator/JohnWayne Mitch Morrison]], Charles Lindbergh and UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy appear as a propagandistic "troupe of war heroes" in the 1950s Communist America.

** In "Teddy Bears' Picnic", Bob objects to William Hartnell being cast as Sgt. Grimshaw in TheMovieOfTheBook due to Hartnell being more well known as [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], and recommends Patrick Troughton instead, because Troughton comes off as a more sinister and threatening actor. There's a triple whammy here; both Hartnell ''and'' Troughton played the Doctor in the actual world, Troughton's version of the Doctor was actually a lot friendlier and nicer than Hartnell's version, and Hartnell actually ''did'' play Grimshaw in the movie he originally appeared in (''Film/CarryOnSergeant'').

** "Abdication Street" is a pretty straight retelling of ''Cinderella'', if you ignore the alternate history wedding in a 1970s Tsarist Russia where "Cinzia" is a TV make-up artist, Prince Charming is Prince Charles, and the "Fairy Godfather" is Creator/PeterSellers.

* TheNeidermeyer: Captain Fisher, a.k.a. "Literature/BillyLiar", in "Teddy Bears' Picnic".

* UnfriendlyFire: The final fate of Captain Fisher in "Teddy Bears' Picnic". He gets fragged by his own troops using a white phosphorus grenade.

* GoingNative: Basil Fotherington-Thomas (from the ''Literature/{{Molesworth}}'' books) fills the Kurtz role in "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a bizarre AlternateHistory retelling of ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. ''Literature/JustWilliam'' also fits as the soldier sent to kill Fotherington-Thomas who ends up joining him.

The stories are set in an AlternateHistory in which the United States has a communist revolution led by prominent RealLife American Socialist UsefulNotes/EugeneDebs[[note]]The real life Debs hated [[JosefStalin Stalinism]] and the SovietUnion that this series is based on[[/note]] in 1917, with subsequent events parallelling the real-life history of the USSR. (Russia, in this history, remains an empire but evolves into a constitutional monarchy, and allies with the UK against the USSA in the Cold War.) They feature Newman's trademark MassiveMultiplayerCrossover style, with fictional characters rubbing shoulders with historical figures in surprising new contexts.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Of course
** UsefulNotes/EugeneDebs plays an important role, as the Revolutionary that started it all. Significant liberties are taken about his personality

* HistoricalDomainCharacter

The stories are set in an AlternateHistory in which the United States has a communist revolution led by prominent RealLife Socialist UsefulNotes/EugeneDebs in 1917, with subsequent events parallelling the real-life history of the USSR. (Russia, in this history, remains an empire but evolves into a constitutional monarchy, and allies with the UK against the USSA in the Cold War.) They feature Newman's trademark MassiveMultiplayerCrossover style, with fictional characters rubbing shoulders with historical figures in surprising new contexts.

The stories are set in an AlternateHistory in which the United States has a communist revolution in 1917, with subsequent events parallelling the real-life history of the USSR. (Russia, in this history, remains an empire but evolves into a constitutional monarchy, and allies with the UK against the USSA in the Cold War.) They feature Newman's trademark MassiveMultiplayerCrossover style, with fictional characters rubbing shoulders with historical figures in surprising new contexts.

* CelebrityParadox: Fictional characters will often appear alongside the people who played them. In one instance, "Teddy Bears' Picnic" includes the actor Creator/WilliamHartnell and fictional characters from the movie and TV show he's most famous for starring in.

* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: All over the place, with both real and fictional people. Al Capone is the American Stalin, Creator/KurtVonnegut is the American Gorbachev, and Trotsky's daughter is a commoner who marries the British Crown Prince. [[Creator/LRonHubbard Lafayette Hubbard]], [[Creator/JohnWayne Mitch Morrison]], Charles Lindbergh and Joseph [=McCarthy=] appear as a propagandistic "troupe of war heroes" in the 1950s Communist America.

* MythologyGag: In "Teddy Bears' Picnic", Bob objects to William Hartnell being cast as Sgt. Grimshaw in TheMovieOfTheBook due to Hartnell being more well known as [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], and recommends Patrick Troughton instead, because Troughton comes off as a more sinister and threatening actor. There's a triple whammy here; both Hartnell ''and'' Troughton played the Doctor in the actual world, Troughton's version of the Doctor was actually a lot friendlier and nicer than Hartnell's version, and Hartnell actually ''did'' play Grimshaw in the movie he originally appeared in (''Film/CarryOnSergeant'').