Philip Roth's Plot Against America and the possibilities of history

Bergen’s exploration of the preconditions (or as she calls it, the “dry timber”) that made the Holocaust not inevitable but possible highlights one of the genocide’s scariest qualities for me: how comprehensible the path there was, and how rationally the roots can be explained. Browning’s detailed explanations of Police Battalion 101’s actions and reactions in Ordinary Men achieve a similar humanization and rationalization for me. Our discussions of these works highlighted each writer’s ability to debunk popular concepts of German demonization, and to make the Holocaust not simply a uniquely German entity without undermining or obscuring the genocide’s horrific aspects. These significant themes reminded me (for soon to be obvious reasons, I hope) of a book I read a few years ago, Philiip Roth’s The Plot Against America.

In this work of historical fiction, Roth reinvents his actual youth as a young Jewish boy in a predominately Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey (born in 1933) in an alternative direction of US history. In this novel FDR does not get reelected in 1940, rather Roth alters historical reality having America elect Charles Lindbergh 33^rd president. Roth explains in an essay about his book:

…In 1940, when the country was angrily divided between the Republican isolationists, who, not without reason, wanted no part of a second European war -- and who probably represented a slight majority of the populace -- and the Democratic interventionists, who didn't necessarily want to go to war either but who believed that Hitler had to be stopped before he invaded and conquered England and Europe was entirely fascist and totally his…But if Lindbergh had run? With that boyish manly aura of his? With all that glamour and celebrity, with his being virtually the first great American hero to delight America's emerging entertainment society? And with his unshakeable isolationist convictions that committed him to keeping our country out of this horrible war? I don't think it's far-fetched to imagine the election outcome as I do in the book, to imagine Lindbergh's depriving Roosevelt of a third term.

After the famous aviator, known for not only isolationist policies but also anti-semitic attitudes towards Jews, takes the election he signs a non-aggression pact with the Axis powers to uphold his promise of keeping Americans out of another damaging war. Minor outbursts of anti-semitism grow slowly over time, become normalized, and eventually build to larger outbreaks of violence.

            Many questioned the novels reflection on the present when it came out in 2004 during Bush’s presidency. Roth asserts that he wrote Plot Against America to use the past to illuminate the past. One way I think the author achieves this is by highlighting the way “dry timber” and preconditions for making violence (that can, and often does, lead to more violence) possible (not inevitable) existed (and continue to exist) everywhere. In the novel Roth brings up the concept that, as the author puts, “all the assurances are provisional, even here in a 200-year-old democracy.” He emphasizes the unforeseen possibilities of history before it happens. On the other hand one review of the novel connects Roth’s exploration of 1940 America’s “dry timber” to actions taken in actual genocides: “Lindbergh’s America and Pol Pot’s Cambodia as Jewish families are moved from their suburban homes to work in rural settings, far away from friends and family.  The disappearance of Lindbergh’s plane and the blame subsequently laid at the door of Jewish interests was reminiscent of the event which triggered the Rwandan genocide in 1994.” These connections bring this reviewer to emphasize,  “genocide in different countries and different cultures follow similar recognizable and preventable patterns.” I think that the point this reviewer raises is compelling, relevant, and that these similarities can comment on conditions that make genocide possible. However these similarities can bring one to question how predictable patterns leading to atrocities can be without the reflection of history. They relate to current questions Obama’s Atrocities Prevention Board faces in building a framework to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity from recurring.

Roth essay: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/beyond-kony-how-to-prevent-atrocities-before-they-happen/?scp=6&sq=genocide&st=cse

Review: http://www.louisereviews.com/