The Plot Against America (original 2004; edition 2005)

by Philip Roth (Author)

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Fiction. Literature. HTML: Philip Roth's bestselling alternate history�??the chilling story of what happens to one family when America elects a charismatic, isolationist president�??is soon to be an HBO limited series. In an extraordinary feat of narrative invention, Philip Roth imagines an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to heroic aviator and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh. Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism. For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America�??and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother. "A terrific political novel . . . Sinister, vivid, dreamlike . . . creepily plausible. . . You turn the pages, astonished and frightened." �?? The New York Times Book Rev… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	annclara
Title:	The Plot Against America
Authors:	Philip Roth (Author)
Info:	Vintage (2005), Edition: 1st, 391 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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Work Information

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)

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▾Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (370)

Best Alternate History (14)

Best 21st Century Books (So Far) (53)

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English (184) French (9) Dutch (5) German (3) Spanish (3) Catalan (2) Italian (2) Danish (2) Swedish (2) Portuguese (Portugal) (1) Hebrew (1) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) Portuguese (1) All languages (216)

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Story: 6.5 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 10
Prose: 7 (

)

MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |

I went through this weird phase where I read a lot of books about Nazis, including this extremely disturbing book. It's based on a really big What If: FDR isn't reelected and in his place the US gets the Lone Eagle/Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh. (BTW, reading this, you can't help but think that today we're actually living in some version of Roth's hypothetical "what if the wrong guy was president during a crucial time in human history" setting.)

Though this is fiction (or as Nathan shelves it, "lies") you learn a lot about WWII in the reading. There's a lengthy postscript following the narrative wherein Roth backs up a lot of his claims with facts. Spooky. (

)

LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |

A very prophetic book given the nightmare America is experiencing under the Trump administration. Want to see just how bad things could get if this continues? Read this book. A masterpiece. (

)

BenM2023 | Nov 22, 2023 |

I had to keep checking the copyright date, not quite believing this was written 20 years before current events.

Amazingly prescient, terrifying, and I wish it were required reading. (

)

MaxWebster | Sep 22, 2023 |

I could not finish it - seemed mechanical and repetitive. (

)

RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |

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▾Published reviews

3 reviews

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thingScore 100

Philip Roth has written a terrific political novel, though in a style his readers might never have predicted — a fable of an alternative universe, in which America has gone fascist and ordinary life has been flattened under a steamroller of national politics and mass hatreds.

added by danielx | editNew York Times, Paul Berman (Dec 29, 2014)

Young Philip's greatest epiphany is to recognise the difference between history as taught in school - harmless and inevitable - and history as it's lived through, "the relentless unforeseen". His novel is a different kind of history again, an imagined past which, if we learn from it, might save us from a calamitous future. It's not Roth's funniest novel (and there's hardly any sex). But in its sweep and chutzpah, it ranks with his great trilogy of the late-90s. Isn't it time they gave him the Nobel?

added by danielx | editThe Guardian, Blake Morrison (Jan 1, 2004)

Philip Roth's huge, inflammatory, painfully moving new novel draws upon a persistent theme in American life: "It can't happen here." That's how we express our longing to believe that our ideals are too strong to be shoved aside by some cruder impulse, and our nagging fear that our democracy is too fragile to withstand assault by the muscle of fascism...

added by danielx | editThe Washinton Post, Jonathan Yardley (Jan 1, 2004)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (13 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Roth, Philip	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Kooman, Ko	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Línek, Josef	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Mantovani, Vincenzo	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Silver, Ron	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Zwart, Janneke	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Biblioteca Sábado

Biblioteca Sábado (42)

Gallimard, Du monde entier

Gallimard, Folio (4637)

Literatura [Mondadori, ES] (275)

Meulenhoff editie (2119)

— 2 more

Supercoralli [Einaudi]

Vintage International

Is contained in

Philip Roth: Novels 2001-2007: The Dying Animal / The Plot Against America / Exit Ghost by Philip Roth

The American Trilogy by Philip Roth

It Can Happen Here by Claire Sprague

Has as a commentary on the text

Philip Roth: American Pastoral, The Human Stain, The Plot Against America (Continuum Studies Contem N American Fiction) by Debra Shostak

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Distinctions

Amazon.com Best Books (2004)

Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction – 2004)

Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Fiction – 2004)

The New York Times Best Books of the Year (2004)

SWR-Bestenliste (2005)

Notable Lists

The 100 best books of the 21st century by The Guardian

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006/2008 Edition)

111 jaar Donner - Een tijdlijn in boeken

De 21 Beste Romans Van de 21ste Eeuw

ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (Literature & Language Arts – 2009)

Greatest Books algorithm

New York Times: Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years (Multiple Votes)

Notable Books List (2005)

Union for Reform Judaism Significant Jewish Books

Vulture's the Best 100 Books of the Century

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Important places

Newark, New Jersey, USA

Washington, D.C., USA

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Kentucky, USA

Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Important events

World War II (1939 | 1945)

Related movies

The Plot against America (2020 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

To S.F.R.

First words

Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear.

Quotations

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Et je n'avais jamais aussi bien compris à quel point la vanité éhontée des imbéciles peut faire le malheur d'autrui.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

813.54

Canonical LCC

PS3568.O855

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Philip Roth's bestselling alternate history�??the chilling story of what happens to one family when America elects a charismatic, isolationist president�??is soon to be an HBO limited series.

In an extraordinary feat of narrative invention, Philip Roth imagines an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to heroic aviator and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh. Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.

For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America�??and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.
"A terrific political novel . . . Sinister, vivid, dreamlike . . . creepily plausible. . . You turn the pages, astonished and frightened." �?? The New York Times Book Rev

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