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This novel was published in the early-to-mid 1970s. Paperback. I am pretty sure the author was American and male. If I remember correctly, it was not marketed as 'science fiction' - it may have even been labeled 'romance'.

My problem: I began the book but didn't finish it! All I can remember is the opening scene - a young woman's mother has just died and she is going through her mother's effects. She finds a book - 'The Time-Life History of World War Two'. This is a puzzle, because there was no World War Two in this timeline. I believe the plot involves either time travel or cross-dimensional travel, I'm not sure which. I know it's not much to work with, but that's all I've got. Any help would be appreciated.

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    Good memory on the name of the in-universe book title.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 4:24
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    If someone posts the correct answer, you can accept it by clicking on the checkmark by the voting buttons as per the tour. :) No worries if you want to wait to see if better answers come in. By the by, I notice you have a few other answered questions where you have confirmed by comment. You can still accept those, get a cool 2 point bonus for doing so and help us organize the site.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 4:26

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Elleander Morning by Jerry Yulsman, published in 1984.

Front cover of Elleander Morning

A seductive, compelling alternate history in the tradition of The Man in the High Castle.
When the mysterious, beautiful Elleander Morning travels through time to Vienna in 1913, her aim is not to visit the birthplace of Schubert and Strauss. Instead, she has come to assassinate a struggling young artist. His name: Adolf Hitler.

But 60 years on, long after Elleander has changed the path of the world, a mysterious book - the history of a terrible, global war that never was - threatens to unravel reality. As the horrific past - a past that never happened - begins to reassert itself, billions of lives lie in the balance . . .

From a Goodreads review:

In the spring of 1913 an Englishwoman walks into a coffee shop in Vienna and shoots to death a 24-year-old “indigent Austro-Hungarian artist” named Adolf Hitler.

In 1983, that woman’s granddaughter inherits a house in London where she discovers a book entitled “The Time-Life History of the Second World War”, a war she’s never heard of. When she makes the book public, some people are horrified, some are offended - but others are inspired.

Found with a search for science fiction "time travel" "Time-Life History"

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  • Thank you for the answer - it certainly seems to be the book - I have ordered a copy to make sure.
    – Lee Eckhardt
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 5:18
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    The end note of "The Iron Dream" was always more inspiring regarding what might have happened if "no Hitler" in place of "no WWII, great" (in that case, Hitler becomes a famous pulp/fantasy writer in the US much admired for his cosplay and raconteur skills)
    – David Tonhofer
    Commented Oct 18, 2020 at 11:55
  • This reminds a bit of Century Rain
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Oct 19, 2020 at 3:00

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