It's a fun book, and the appendix contains a rundown of the history of the world from about 1878 to the early 21st century, which would make for a great campaign background resource.
If you like that book quite a bit, check out Stirling's recent "The Sky People." It's another alternate history. In this one, it's 1988, but a decidedly different one than the one we lived through. Sometime in the 1940s/50s, Venus and Mars were discovered to harbor life. Not just any kind of life, but life remarkably similar to the ecosystems found in the old pulp magazines, and almost specifically E.R. Burroughs' writing. Venus is a place riotous with life, much of it prehistoric in nature, at least from Earth's perspective. Dinosaurs co-exist with large sabertooths, and Neanderthals come into conflict with primitive "true humans." The arms race on Earth was mostly cast aside as both sides of the Iron Curtain scrambled to get into space and establish colonies. "The Sky People" concentrates on Venus, and how it came to contain life so similar to Earth's. Very fun, action-packed, fast paced stuff.