Would you go back in time and kill baby Hitler?

Would you? Vox's Phil Edwards asked author James Gleick about the history of this unusual philosophical question. Follow Phil Edwards and Vox Almanac o... ... read more

Even in the absence of paradoxes, I would not go back in time to kill Hitler. Aside from the obvious points made about history being caused by much more than the single actions of one man, I’d like to point out that Germany lost WWII, and Hitler was probably the reason it happened. read more

So no, you shouldn’t go back in time and kill baby Hitler. Killing adult Hitler is another story -- if you have a shot, take it immediately. For that matter, go ahead and knock off Stalin and Mao and Yassar Arafat as well. You Are Not God. The fun of counterfactuals is the perfect hindsight of history. read more