For readers of Philip Roth’s novel “The Plot Against America”, Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House may sound rather familiar.
Published in September 2004, Roth’s novel centres on an alternative history in which aviation hero Charles Lindbergh is nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for President in 1940 and goes on to defeat Franklin D Roosevelt on the back of a strong tide of popular support.
Lindbergh’s first act is to sign a treaty with Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler promising that the United States will not interfere with German expansion in Europe. With Lindbergh as president, Jewish families increasingly feel like outsiders in American society.
If you swap Russia for Germany, Putin for Hitler and Muslims for Jews, then Roth’s novel seems frighteningly prophetic. Scrape away at the surface of American society and there is something very nasty lurking underneath.