How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove

As is typical of Turtledove's alternate history novels, How Few Remain sports a large cast of historical characters. For his viewpoint characters, Turtledove makes use of Abe Lincoln, Sam Clemens, J.E.B. Stuart, Theodore Roosevelt, George A. Custer, Alfred von Schlieffen, Frederick Douglass and Stonewall Jackson. This broad cast of characters allows Turtledove to present several different viewpoints of the situation and add depth to the world he has created without seeming to give any single individual an unreasonably open or broad mind. This method also makes it easier for Turtledove to avoid portraying his world in simplistic black and white terms, as too much speculative fiction still does.