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Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I think that "alternate history" is its own genre; while I think it usually does have a sf framing device, it doesn't have to, and the book doesn't necessarily have to have any science-fiction-y or fantastic elements.
Although I think it practice the books are more similar to SF. A lot (but not all) of SF is really about the present, but extrapolated out into the future where certain technological or sociological changes have occurred, and part of the work looks at how these changes have or haven't transformed society.
Alternate history is like this, except instead of looking forward to a society transformed by technology or social change, it (sometimes) looks at how a society might be transformed by a different outcome to a historical event (i.e., Man in the High Castle). On other occasions, it will look to see how a past society might be changed by the introduction of modern technology or knowledge into the past). Those strike me as being more like sf than fantasy.
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A fun discussion on the topic of how to classify alternate history stories actually happens in the alternate history novel "The Man in the High Castle." That book is about society in a world where the Axis won World War II. In that novel, there is a novel called "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" that is about society in a world where the Allies won World War II. At a dinner party in "The Man in the High Castle" the guests discuss "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" and argue over whether or not it's science fiction. It's certainly worth a read.