The Plot Against America (2004) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Alvin: Cousin to Philip and Sandy.
• Sandy Roth: Oldest child in the family. He is quite artistic. Spends summer on a farm in Kentucky as a participant in the Just Folks program. He later goes on to be the spokesperson for the program.
• Evelyn Roth: She is the aunt of Sandy and Philip.
• Walter Winchell: He has a radio program where he is quite vocal in his dislike of the newly elected president of the United States.
• Adolf Hitler: He is the historical figure that was the leader of Germany during World War II
• Charles A. Lindbergh: He is the aviation hero who, in this book, becomes president of the United States.
• Mr. Taylor: Tour guide who leads the Roth family around Washington, D.C. He manages to remain calm and quite apolitical as he leads them around Washington, while Mr. Roth is highly vocal in his opinion of Hitler and Lindbergh, and brings his family into several near-disasters.
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh: She is the First lady of the United States and is married to Charles A. Lindbergh, the famous aviator now president.
• Seldon Wishnow: He lives with his parents in the flat below the Roth family. He is close to Philip's age. Later he and his mother move to Kentucky.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt: In this book, he loses his bid for a third term as president of the United States to Charles A. Lindbergh.
• Mrs. Wishnow: She is the mother of Seldon. She is a housewife until her husband dies and then she takes his job working for the same insurace company as Mr. Roth.
• Joey: Add a description of this character.
• Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf: Marries Evelyn Roth's sister. He is appointed to a government office in the Lindbergh administration. The Just Folks program is under his department.
• Herman Roth: Sandy and Philip's father.
• Mr. Cucuzza: Moves into the flat previously occupied by the Wishnows. He is a nightwatchman.
• Mr. Mawhinney: Lives on a farm in Danville, Kentucky. His family hosts Sandy Roth during his summer with the Just Folks program
• Benito Mussolini: The leader of Italy.
• von Ribbentrop
• Minna
• Wheeler
• Abe Steinheim: Alvin's employer.
• Mr. Tirschwell
• Fiorello La Guardia: The mayor of New York City from 1934-1945.
• Shushy Margulis: a ne'er do-well. Friend of Alvin's.
• Himmler
• Jack
• Axman
• Philip: He is the character that tells this story. He is 7 when the book starts and is an avid stamp collector.
• Mr. Kuenze: Owns a pretzel store.
• Orin Mawhinney: The son of the Mawhinney's with whom Sandy spent a summer during his time with the Just Folks program.

Quotes edit see section history

• “"The pompous son of a bitch knows everything--it's too bad he doesn't know anything else."”

  Phil's Uncle Monty, said of Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, supporter of Lindberg

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• the discovery that one could do nothing right without also doing something wrong, so wrong, in fact, that especially where chaos reigned and everything was at stake, one might be better off to wait and do nothing—except that to do nothing was also to do something. . .in such circumstances to do nothing was to do quite a lot—and

  Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers

• the shameless vanity of utter fools can so strongly determine the fate of others.

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• And as Lindbergh's election couldn't have made clearer to me, the unfolding of the unforeseen was everything. Turned wrong way round, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied as 'History,' harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.

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• It was the first time I saw my father cry. A childhood milestone, when another's tears are more unbearable than one's own.

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• This then was the culmination of our quest—Jesus Christ, who by their reasoning was everything and who by my reasoning had fucked everything up: because if it weren't for Christ there wouldn't be Christians, and if it weren't for Christians there wouldn't be anti-Semitism, and if it weren't for anti-Semitism there wouldn't be Hitler, and if it weren't for Hitler Lindbergh would never be president, and if Lindbergh weren't president. . .

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• There were two types of strong men: those like Uncle Monty and Abe Steinheim, remorseless about their making money, and those like my father, ruthlessly obedient to their idea of fair play.

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• 'The pompous son of a bitch knows everything—it's too bad he doesn't know anything else.'

  Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers

• You had to be there to see what it looked like. They live in a dream, and we live in a nightmare.'

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• It's so heartbreaking, violence, when it's in a house—like seeing the clothes in a tree after an explosion. You may be prepared to see death but not the clothes in the tree.

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• there was more each morning for a boy who worshiped him to worship, and what there was to pity was a little less impossible to bear.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• United States Of America
• Newark
• White House
• Kentucky
• Washington Monument
• New York City
• California
• New Jersey
• Canada
• Germany
• Louisville
• Danville
• Europe
• England
• St. Louis
• Berlin
• Philadelphia
• Montreal
• Iceland
• Madison Square Garden
• West Virginia
• Detroit
• Indiana
• Montana
• France
• Atlantic
• Pennsylvania
• Penn Station
• Winnipeg
• New Brunswick
• Poland
• Russia
• Soviet Union
• Weequahic
• Manhattan
• Great Britain
• London
• Mount Vernon
• Hyde Park
• Italy
• Boston
• Paris
• China
• Chicago

Organizations edit see section history

• Just Folks: A program for Jewish youth in which they travel to a different geographic area and live with a Gentile host family for a summer learning about their culture and lives.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, and followed by Wolf Hall.

Preceded by The Red Queen, and followed by The Master.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Philip Roth (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Sidewise Award for Alternate History (2004: Long Form)
• National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist, 2004: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3568.O855 P58
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( R ) › Roth, Philip
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Alternate History
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary