{"id":300483,"date":"2025-06-18T08:35:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T08:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-june-18-2025-american-nazis-the-plot-against-america\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T08:35:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T08:35:52","slug":"americanstudies-june-18-2025-american-nazis-the-plot-against-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=300483","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: June 18, 2025: American Nazis: The Plot Against America"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[In the summer
\nof 1945<\/a>, Nazi scientists began arriving in the United States, recruited to
\nwork in the US government and eventually
\nits space program<\/a> as part of Operation
\nPaperclip<\/a>. But they weren\u2019t the first American Nazis by any means, and this
\nweek I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful of others, leading up to a weekend post on an
\ninteresting and fraught recent cultural representation of Paperclip.]<\/p>\n

[NB. As of
\nmy drafting of this post, I haven\u2019t had a chance to watch <\/span>David Simon and Ed Burns\u2019 HBO
\nminiseries<\/span><\/a> adaptation of Roth\u2019s novel, so my thoughts here will focus on the
\nbook. I hope to get to that at some point and will add an update here if and when
\nI do!]<\/span><\/p>\n

On three
\ntelling & compelling layers to <\/span>Philip
\nRoth\u2019s 2004<\/span><\/a> alternate historical fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the
\nconsistent pleasures of reading <\/span>alternate
\nhistories<\/span><\/a> (as with historical fiction in general, of course) is seeing how
\nthey incorporate actual historical figures into (and refigure them within) their
\nimagined histories. Roth\u2019s novel includes dozens of such figures in both important
\nand minor roles, but three of the most central are ones I\u2019ve featured or
\nreferenced in prior posts this week: in Roth\u2019s central premise, Charles
\nLindbergh is elected president in 1940 and aligns the US with Nazi Germany; he
\nappoints Henry Ford as his Secretary of the Interior; and one of Lindbergh\u2019s
\nmost consistent adversaries in the novel is New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
\n(who in real life pushed back on the 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi rally,
\namong many other <\/span>anti-Nazi
\nand pro-Jewish efforts<\/span><\/a> during his tenure as mayor). These historical
\nfigures make Roth\u2019s novel a juicier read for any student of American history,
\nbut they also reflect a profound understanding of how the actual course of
\n1930s and 40s American history already intersected with Nazi Germany in many
\ndifferent ways. That is, this may be an alternate history, but it\u2019s a potently
\nrealistic one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roth\u2019s
\nnovel does also include Father Coughlin, but in a briefer and more minor role,
\nperhaps because one of Roth\u2019s central fictional characters is a religious
\nleader in his own right: Newark\u2019s Conservative Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, who
\nbecomes a prominent Lindbergh supporter and who later marries the narrator
\nPhilip\u2019s Aunt Evelyn. As far as I\u2019ve been able to learn, no prominent Jewish
\nAmerican figures or leaders supported movements like the German American Bund
\nor the America First Committee (which I wrote about in Monday and Tuesday\u2019s
\nposts, respectively), which makes sense given their overt and defining
\nantisemitism. But it\u2019s also the case that no one linked to those movements ran
\nfor president, nor gained the widespread popular support of a frontrunner for
\nthat highest office; both of which are true of Roth\u2019s Lindbergh by the time
\nthat Bengelsdorf endorses him. So it certainly seems plausible that a
\nconservative Jewish figure like Bengelsdorf would under those circumstances
\nhitch his wagon to Lindbergh\u2019s star\u2014but it is even more plausible that doing so
\ndoes not spare Bengelsdorf from the rising tide of Nazism and antisemitism, as
\nhe is later arrested when widespread white supremacist riots target Jewish
\nAmericans throughout the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

To my mind
\nthe novel\u2019s most compelling characters are its younger generation Jewish
\nAmericans, however, a group that includes not only the narrator Philip, but
\nalso and most complicatedly his older brother Sandy (among others). Sandy is
\nselected by the Office of American Absorption (OAA) for its \u201cJust Folks\u201d
\nprogram, which places Jewish boys with Southern and Midwestern families in
\norder to \u201cAmericanize\u201d them; Sandy is sent to a farm in Kentucky and returns
\nhome highly critical of his family (calling them \u201cghetto Jews\u201d). This complex
\nand fraught plotline echoes the experiences of young <\/span>Native
\nAmericans<\/span><\/a> sent to the late 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup>
\ncentury <\/span>boarding
\nschools<\/span><\/a>, as well as the broader \u201c<\/span>Americanization\u201d
\nmovement<\/span><\/a> of that same period. But it also allows Roth to explore an
\nuncomfortable truth likewise revealed by the Washington\u2019s birthday 1939 New
\nYork rally\u2014that American Nazis could, and did, make the case that their beliefs
\nand movement aligned with foundational elements of American identity. One more
\nhistorical echo of this profoundly, painfully historical (and, yes, <\/span>frustratingly
\nsalient<\/span><\/a>) alternate history novel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nNaziStudying tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Other histories or stories you\u2019d highlight?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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