The first book I read this year is “The Plot Against America”by Philip Roth. It is a counter-factual
history of America that has FDR losing the Presidential election in 1940 to
Charles A. Lindbergh, the Republican candidate, but really, the “America First”
candidate.
This fast-paced book is told from the perspective of a
Jewish boy living in Newark, New Jersey. He is the younger of two boys over a
working class family who are the children of immigrants to America.
As the book unfolds, America seems to inexorably drawn into
World War II in support of the allies who are in headlong retreat from the
Nazis and Imperial Japan. The forces against war are united by the slogan “America
First.” Charles Lindbergh really was a leader in this movement and really did
want America to stay out of the war, but in the book, Lindbergh improbably
becomes the nominee of the Republican Party by showing up at a deadlocked
convention and winning in a 3 a.m. ballot.
Then the book gets eerie. Lindbergh crisscrosses America
flying himself from city to farm town holding rallies. At these rallies he stays with his anti-war
and pro-Nazi message and wins the election in a landslide (not by 80,000 votes).
With his election, anti-Semitic policies begin, first with
youth programs, then forced relocation and America becomes more and more an
ally of the Nazis. The end of the Lindbergh Presidency is very quick. I won’t
give spoilers. But the compromises and lies that lead the nation to the brink
of a Jewish pogrom are told in a way that seems all too plausible.
Having the whole story narrated by a young boy allows Roth
to use hysterical narration and remain completely plausible.
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