The plot against America

When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lind bergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 president ial election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jew s for selfishly pushing America towards a pointless war with Nazi Germ any, but, upon taking office as the 33rd president of the United State s, he negotiated a cordial 'understanding' with Adolf Hitler, whose co nquest of Europe and whose virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty. What then followed in America is the his torical setting for this startling new novel by Pulitzer-prize winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family - and for a million such families all over the country - during the menacin g years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happen ed to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.

(Seelig)