The Plot Against America

What if Charles Lindbergh had been elected president in 1940, winning on a platform to keep America out of the war, and allowing his latent anti-Semitic views to lead the country down an entirely different path? One where instead of fighting the Nazis, America signed non-aggression pacts with Germany and Japan, and American society became more repressive and violent? This is the alternate history that Philip Roth imagines in his excellent novel The Plot Against America. The genius of his premise is the plausibility of it, especially given Lindbergh’s enormous popularity at the time. While the ending is a bit of a disappointment as Roth pulls back from any truly radical implications, he discovered a new mood with this novel, one of fear and anxiety and political paranoia. This is one of his finest books.