When the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh defeated President Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, fear gripped American Jews. Not only had Lindbergh, in his radio address to the nation, accused Jews of pushing America into an unnecessary war with Nazi Germany, but upon becoming the thirty-third president of the United States, he promptly signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. Then terror entered Jewish homes.
When the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh defeated President Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, fear gripped American Jews. Not only had Lindbergh, in his radio address to the nation, accused Jews of pushing America into an unnecessary war with Nazi Germany, but upon becoming the thirty-third president of the United States, he promptly signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. Terror then entered Jewish homes, particularly that of the Roth family. This context serves as the historical backdrop for *The Plot Against America*, a novel in which Philip Roth, who was seven years old at the time, recounts what his family, and millions of similar families across the country, experienced and felt during the dark years of Lindbergh's presidency, when American citizens who were also Jewish had good reason to fear the worst. In doing so, he offers us another masterpiece.
