"The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth

We have come close on occasion (Bush/Cheney), and we may yet get there still (I'm looking at you, Sarah Palin); the ability of my fellow Americans to elect a Fascist government should not be underestimated.  (The first African-American president and an unemployment rate stubbornly stuck above 8% come 2012...well...I need not spell it out for you.)

Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" imagines such an outcome in the guise of alternative history.  In this case, the 1940 Republican convention is unable to come up with a nominee to run against President Roosevelt's quest for a third term until Charles Lindbergh arrives at the convention hall and is nominated by acclimation.  As the second world war begins in Europe, the "Vote for Lindbergh or Vote for War" campaign of the Nazi sympathizer pilot leads to victory for the Republicans, and a slow march toward isolationism and Fascism for the United States:  A non-aggression pact is signed with Hitler, Britain becomes weaker, and Lindbergh's police-state policies take aim at the United States' Jewish communities.

Roth's revisionist history, told through the eyes of a seven-year-old New Jersey boy whose family are the epitome of 1940 middle class America (working hard and enjoying the fruits of the American economy, only to have their world ripped out from beneath them following the election of "President Lindbergh"), is a cautionary tale about the ability of Americans to vote their fears rather than their hopes.

Alternative histories can be tricky, but "The Plot Against America" is a page-turner, extremely well written, giving the reader a rather palatable sense of dread.  The reader soon realizes how very easy it would be for the United States, under just the right circumstances, to take such a radical turn to the right.

The climax of the story is a bit rushed and over-the-top (Roth uses an extremely outdated and never-used American election law that is no longer in effect to bring things to a close), but that is not enough to keep this book from a strong recommendation.

In this, the day and age of the Fascist-leaning Tea Party movement, I can't think of a better cautionary tale than "The Plot Against America."