So I bought this book at Strand Books in Manhattan. The Strand is one of those great old independent book stores that continues to thrive while the chain stores keep going out of business. For me it’s like a casino - I walk in there and then many hours later I walk out and wonder what happened to the time. One thing Strand Books does well is pick out interesting books to put on their tables on the street level floor, books that may be years old but are somehow of current interest.
This book is an alternate history where after FDR’s second term he is defeated by Charles Lindbergh for the presidency. Lindbergh runs on an America First platform of keeping the United States out of WWII. “Vote for Lindbergh or vote for war” Lindbergh is sympathetic to the Nazis and blames the British and moneyed Jews for trying to drag America into the another European war.
I’ve read other alternate histories. It’s an interesting genre, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes fun, sometimes just weird. (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union falls into all those categories). But this book is the first Alternative History that scared the bejesus out of me. It seems like it really could have happened that way. And maybe, just maybe, somehow, over in D.C. there was a glitch a few years back and we are all now living in an alternate history.
Has anybody here read this book?