The Plot Against America

In 2004, novelist Philip Roth published The Plot Against America: A Novel (ISBN 0618509283), an alternate history where Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh is elected. The novel follows the fortunes of the Roth family during the Lindbergh presidency, as anti-Semitism becomes more accepted in American life and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics.

Related Topics:
2004 - Philip Roth - Alternate history - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 1940 - President of the United States - Charles Lindbergh - Anti-Semitism - Jewish-American

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Roth based his novel on the isolationist and anti-Semitic ideas espoused by Lindbergh in real life as a spokesperson for America First. Roth has stated that the idea for the novel came to him while reading Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s autobiography, in which Schlesinger makes a comment that some of the more radical Republican senators of the day wanted Lindbergh to run against Roosevelt.

Related Topics:
Isolationist - America First - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

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Roth's plot, which turns on the rapid rise of anti-Semitism, may appear far-fetched to some. Roth has written in his autobiography, The Facts, however, of the racial and anti-Semitic tensions that were a part of his childhood in Newark, New Jersey. Several times in that book he describes children in his neighborhood being set upon simply because they were Jewish.

Related Topics:
Newark, New Jersey - Jew

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The novel engendered controversy for its portrayal of an anti-Semitism in America rising violently, to the level of pogroms, in particular among Catholics http://www.amconmag.com/2004_09_27/review.html, for the nature of its portrayals of real-life characters like Lindbergh http://www.charleslindbergh.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000069, and for its rushed ending, featuring a drastic and odd resolution to the political situation reminiscent of a deus ex machina.

Related Topics:
Pogroms - Catholic - Deus ex machina

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Many supporters and critics of the book alike took it as something of a roman à clef against the administration of George W. Bush http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/dw20041011.shtml, but Roth, who is openly opposed to Bush, has strenuously and repeatedly denied this allegorical interpretation of his novel.

Related Topics:
Roman à clef - George W. Bush

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In 2005, the novel won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

Related Topics:
2005 - Sidewise Award for Alternate History

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