Sara Ring
Communications Assistant
What if beloved American icon (and Nazi sympathizer) Charles Lindbergh had run against Franklin D. Roosevelt for president in 1940? What if Lindbergh had won? This alternate history novel depicts the ramifications of a Lindbergh presidency on the country, from a staunch anti-war sentiment to a subtle but pervasive anti-Semitism. The ominous developments are told through the eyes of the story’s narrator, a Jewish boy from New Jersey named, unsurprisingly, Philip Roth. Is the mounting anti-Semitism a passing phase, or is something much more sinister underfoot? “The Plot Against America” is a gripping page-turner, infused with Roth’s signature wry wit. The title itself is something of a trick; I literally gasped out loud when its true meaning was revealed. When’s the last time a book made you do that?
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“Roth Rewrites History with a ‘Plot Against America’,” Robert Siegel, NPR. Interview with Philip Roth
“Imagining Jews,” Philip Roth, New York Review of Books
