Course Description

Instructor: Bert and Jill Parks

In this extraordinary fictional historical novel, Philip Roth imagines an alternate history where Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to heroic aviator and rabid fascist, Charles A. Lindbergh. Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh negotiates a cordial “understanding� with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of anti-Semitism and anti-democracy.
The Plot Against America is about how it can happen here. It is about how unscrupulous politicians can win widespread popular support in a crisis and gain a grip on the three branches of government. Does this sound familiar? This book discusses how quickly democracy can turn into a mobocracy when there is a crisis.
“The book suggests that those who recognize the abuses of power and do nothing will pay a price for their complicity. Whether political freedom is taken away in a sudden coup, or eroded by a process of seduction and persuasion, the result is the same. In a divided nation the greatest dangers come not from foreign threats, but from the willingness of Americans to disregard those things they hold in common and make enemies of each other.� Financial Review April 22, 2020 Please purchase on your own and read at least the first 50 pages of the book by the first class. There is also a series on HBOmax by the same name. It is worth watching, although the ending varies from the book.