The Iron Dream

The Iron Dream is an alternate history/science fiction novel written in 1972 by Norman Spinrad. In it, Spinrad tells a fairly standard sci-fi action story as a way of showing just how close Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" - and much science fiction and fantasy literature - can be to the racist fantasies of Nazi Germany.

Related Topics:
Alternate history - Science fiction - 1972 - Norman Spinrad - Joseph Campbell - Hero with a Thousand Faces - Nazi Germany

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The book's premise is that Adolf Hitler emigrated to the United States after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch and became a science fiction illustrator and author. He wrote the fantasy novel Lord of the Swastika in less than a month in 1953, shortly before dying of tertiary syphilis; Lord of the Swastika subsequently won the Hugo Award. The majority of The Iron Dream consists of a "reprint" of Lord of the Swastika, accompanied by a scholarly analysis by a fictional "Homer Whipple" of New York University.

Related Topics:
Adolf Hitler - United States - Beer Hall Putsch - 1953 - Syphilis - Hugo Award - New York University

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In Lord of the Swastika, "Trueman" Feric Jaggar returns from the outlands of Borgravia to his ancestral land of Helder, only to find it overrun by half-breed mutants and normal-seeming but inhuman "Dominators". As the long-lost descendant of the last true King of Helder, Sigmark IV, he is the only one capable of wielding the legendary Great Truncheon of Stag Held. He embarks on a violent crusade for genetic purity, drawing a massive following, staging outdoor rallies and raising an army personally loyal to him.

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It is a pastiche of Hitler's own life filtered through a fantasy lens, ending not in defeat but in global dominion: the Dominators represent the Jews, Helder represents Germany, and Jaggar's initial return from Borgravia mirrors Hitler's own birth in Austria.

Related Topics:
Pastiche - Jew

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