16th January 2025
Philip Roth’s novel begins with the nomination of Charles A Lindbergh as the Republican candidate in the 1940 US Presidential Election to stand against the two-time incumbent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Lindbergh is a fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler. His platform is based on a combination of “America First” – which involves staying out of the foreign wars that are now raging – and a virulent anti-Jewish philosophy. This is spelled out in a seminal speech made to supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, broadcast on the radio: “We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples [i.e. the British
and the Jews] to lead our country to destruction”. (In Roth’s chronology, this is a pre-election speech; Lindbergh actually gave it in September 1941).
The story takes shape through the eyes of Philip – 7 years old at its beginning – who lives with his parents, 10 year-old brother Sanford (Sandy) and cousin Alvin in a Jewish neighbourhood of Newark, New Jersey. His father – Herman, an insurance agent – has a prescient fear of what the future will hold when Lindbergh is elected President. His views are shared – initially at least – by Alvin who joins the Canadian Armed Forces to fight the Nazis in Europe.
A family trip to Washington reveals the previously latent anti-Semitism to which Lindbergh’s election has given official endorsement. In quick succession, this is demonstrated by a tourist at the Lincoln Memorial, a policeman, a hotel manager and a restaurant diner. On their return to Newark, Herman ruefully reflects: “They live in a dream and we live in a nightmare”.
We see that, at first, the undermining of American Jewishness takes place within the family. Philip’s Aunt Evelyn becomes the mistress of a prominent rabbi – Lionel Bengelsdorf – who is what in other political circles would have been called a “useful idiot” within the Lindbergh administration; to the disgust of his father, Sandy becomes a keen advocate of the Just Folks programme of sending young Jewish boys away from their homes (and closely knit communities) for work experience elsewhere, in his case on a Kentucky farm; and Philip’s parents argue about whether to flee the country for the apparent safety of Canada.
For the young Philip, there is the formidable task of trying to make sense of what is happening in the grown-up world around him, whilst passing through what otherwise would be a conventional childhood: learning to play chess with his neighbour, Seldon; adding to his prized stamp collection; stealing a football from a neighbour’s garden.
In the meantime, whilst events progress in the global conflict – Japanese forces making inroads into China and Burma (with India threatened), Germany engaging in total war with Russia on its eastern front and Britain fighting a lone hand in Western Europe (with no American support) – Lindbergh basks in his success of avoiding direct American involvement. He hosts the German foreign minister – Joachim von Ribbentrop – on a state visit.
As the anti-Jewishness takes a lethal hold across much of the country, there are attacks on homes and business in several cities, most severely in Detroit where a repeat of Germany’s Kristallnacht of November 1938 is enacted. A prominent Jewish figure is assassinated. This prompts the preparation for armed resistance by some of the Jews, notably the young toughs linked to neighbourhood gangs and organised crime. Herman is offered a gun with which to protect his family by a (non-Jewish) neighbour. The latter – an Italian nightwatchman – is a recent arrival in the locality when, in the interest of “assimilation”, the authorities undertake the forced removal of some Jewish families from their neighbourhoods for re-settlement elsewhere.
Philip Roth (1933-2018) was a native of Newark and – quite apart from the name given to his young central character – this is an emphatically personal novel. He moves easily between the claustrophobia of the Roth household and the wider events that have resulted from the presence of the aviator-hero in the White House.
We are invited to reflect not only on the implications of the wholesale capture of the law-enforcement agencies and the mainstream media by those in government, but also – even less easily – on the issue of assimilation of ethnic and cultural groups within a country’s overall framework and on America’s role on the global stage. And – surreally for the present-day reader, given recent comments made by President-elect Trump – on the speculation that the USA’s Armed Forces might launch an attack on Canada.
These are hugely significant issues, of course. It is surely one of Roth’s great accomplishments that – 20 years after the novel’s publication and as we wonder where current global and national events might lead us – they should continue to resonate so powerfully.
The Plot Against America contains a postscript comprising the author’s “note to the reader” and biographical summaries of the major historical figures in the work, including not only Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow, FDR and von Ribbentrop, but also Henry Ford, the broadcaster Walter Winchell and Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City.
The author begins the note by reminding us that this is a work of fiction. It is the flexibility provided by this imaginative form that enables him not only to portray a vivid account of an alternative American history, but also – in its final quarter – to present a dramatic shift in the narrative’s direction.
JR Alexander 