We Live in a World of Unexpected Big EventsEnglish-Turn, Détour-Anglois isn't just Alternate History. It's a metaphor for the modern day-war, migrations, economic turmoil, religious strife, terrorism, global populist revolts. All these contemporary events are folded into a single mind-warping history-changing epic adventure: New Orleans, 1802: Queen Marcella, a mixed-blood voodoo priestess, finds herself swept into a hurricane vortex of international intrigue, personal ambition and religious strife as Volney, an agoraphobic French revolutionary, and Napoleon Bonaparte, Premier Consul of the French Republic, challenge Thomas Jefferson for control of North America.Empires Rise if Government Allows Enlightened Self-Interest to FlourishIn the early days of the French Revolution, Constantin-Francois Volney, a member of the first National Assembly and friend of Thomas Jefferson, published Ruins of Empires, a post-Enlightenment review of human history. The book's central premise, noted above, represents not only a refutation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract-and hence Socialism-but also provides the basis for a solution to the world's enduring religious conflicts. Jefferson liked the book so much he translated it into English. But he also insisted on complete anonymity due to the book's controversial religious content. This little known but well-documented fact becomes the fulcrum event of the English-Turn story-the slight tweak to historical events that provokes Napoleon Bonaparte to sail to New Orleans and change the destiny of the world.