The Plot Against America

Six months after Lindbergh’s inauguration, Philip’s family goes to Washington, DC, on a sightseeing tour. Some of their friends are talking about migrating out of the country. Alvin has gone to Canada to enlist in the military to fight against Hitler with the British. 

Philip gives Alvin’s background. His father died when Alvin was 6, and his mother when Alvin was 13, after which Alvin came to live with the Roths. At age 21, he had worked for Abe Steinheim, a wealthy construction magnate who made Alvin his driver. Philip says that “Alvin couldn’t bear Steinheim and reviled him constantly,” (47) adding he was a bully and a swindler and neglectful and cruel to his family. He cheats his employees of decent wages and uses his influence to cut in line at restaurants: “He is a walking advertisement for the overthrow of capitalism” (49), says Alvin. Abe had planned on sending Alvin to Rutgers, but Alvin enlisted instead, which infuriates Philip’s father. Alvin wants to fight Hitler instead of supporting a corrupt Jew like Steinheim, whom he refuses to be indebted to. 

Lindbergh wins the election, with 57% of the popular vote: “It turned out, the experts concluded, that twentieth-century Americans, weary of confronting a new crisis every decade, were starving for normalcy, and what Charles A.