Political Science Educator: volume 27, issue 1
Reviews
Shyam K. Sriram and Raziya Hillery
Introduction[1]
Kanye West’s recent antisemitic, pro-Hitler tirades alarmed many people, made him into a pariah for mainstream society, and turned him into a hero for the alt-right, white nationalists, and nativist movements. This episode revealed how social media content creators displaced K-16 teachers and educators from their traditional roles. The Kyrie Irving and West controversies revealed how little both men know about Judaism and Jewish history (Sriram 2022). Now, more than ever, students must learn the centrality of Jewish American history to American history and the importance of the Holocaust for understanding the modern world. In this research note, we reflect on our experiences teaching students about antisemitism and Jewish culture through the Philip Roth novel The Plot Against America in our political science classes.
Comparisons and Counterfactuals
In the fall 2020 semester at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, we used The Plot Against America as a required text in “Introduction to U.S. Politics” (an introductory course on American politics for non-majors), “Voting and Elections” (an upper-division seminar aimed primarily at political science majors), “Religion and American Politics” (an upper-division seminar with a course theme of “Jewish American Voices”). In addition to the book, students in this last course interacted with ten Jewish American guest speakers (including a rabbi, a cantor, professors, activists, and people who represented the breadth of the Jewish American experience).
The novel follows a fictionalized version of Philip Roth’s own parents, sibling, and childhood in New Jersey. The novel draws upon several important historical figures in an alternative American reality: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, Senator Burton K. Wheeler, journalist Walter Winchell, and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. These counterfactuals follow what Douglas (2017) declared the novel’s most creative aspects: “its narrative of historical elasticity: one might curve the normal course of history out of its natural path, but when we let it go it snaps back to how it had been going to go all along.” Returning to The Plot or reading it for the first time during the Trump presidency makes American politics feel nightmarish. We hope to awaken and find “the bad dream of foreign intervention, probable collusion, and the growth of Christian authoritarianism passes” (Douglas 2017).
Thus, we challenged students to draw parallels between the novel’s depiction of the 1940 presidential election, where incumbent Roosevelt loses to Lindbergh, and the 2020 election, which formed the backdrop to the class. Is it fair to draw comparisons between Donald Trump and Lindbergh (or should it be Wheeler)? Would the German American Bund wear MAGA hats? How do non-Jewish students comprehend Jewish identity? Students generated these and other questions throughout the semester.
The class required that each student submit five reflection essays over the course of the semester. Students engaged in critical analysis and comparison rather than just summarizing the reading. A content analysis of the student reflections yielded some key themes unique to each course. Students in the religion seminar engaged in more religious and political analysis and were also more likely to address individual characters in the novel. As expected, 97 percent of the essays in the voting seminar focused on the 2020 election. Essays contained more personal anecdotes than the other classes. The most common themes were Trump, protest, and marginalization. However, the introductory course students found the reading the most challenging. These essays reflected the fact that students were recent high school graduates and matriculated at the height of COVID and distance learning. They did not know how to write reflective and critical essays, but were good at summarizing and providing historical details. These students responded the most to the character of Alvin, who becomes a disillusioned amputee veteran, connecting him to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
It became apparent after the first week of discussions that students required a framework to guide them on terminology and historical questions. To that end, the lead instructor posted a handout to the learning-management system (LMS) every week that included definitions, Roth quotes to spark discussion, and critical-thinking questions. Yiddish and Hebrew in the book often confused students: Gentile, pogrom, schmuck, “adonoy,” “Kibbitzers,” goyim, “Ghetto Jews,” Kristallnacht, Zionism, Zionist, High Holidays, and keister. Based on student feedback submitted through their essays and takeaway cards, the instructor lectured on topics to elucidate the novel. Lectures addressed, in an interdisciplinary fashion: antisemitism and philosemitism; historical revisionism; family dynamics; discrimination; mental health; nativism vs. patriotism vs. nationalism; civil rights vs. civil liberties; Jewish denominations; and white supremacy.
Conclusion
More political scientists should teach The Plot Against America in their classes. It is not an easy novel to work with at times, but we firmly believe that the novel helps produce quality conversation that address the fundamental political problems of our times. Unfortunately, few political science faculty assign novels in their courses anymore. That is a shame.
Before teaching Philip Roth, faculty must use trigger warnings to make students aware of certain content like sex, masturbation, violence, and antisemitic language. Some students expressed shock, but also a satisfaction in working through these difficult issues. A sample trigger warning might be: “This week’s reading includes a frequently repeated anti-Jewish slur. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, you may skip the material on pages X, Y, etc.”
Perhaps, most remarkably, we chose to use The Plot Against America as an allegory on white nationalism and its ugly spectacle in electoral politics, but students seemed most impacted and interested in Judaism and Jewish history. The instructor’s academic training helped facilitate this interest. Though, this could present a challenge for instructors keen on using The Plot who lack sufficient knowledge of Judaica. While the three courses only had one Jewish student, the focus on the Jewish American experience helped other students reflect on the marginalization of Jewish culture and people in American politics.
Endnotes:
[1] We virtually presented a previous version of this paper at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
References
Douglas, Christopher. 2017. “You’ve Been Warned: Reading Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America in the Trump Era.” Religion Dispatches, September 28. Retrieved June 13, 2023 (https://religiondispatches.org/youve-been-warned-reading-philip-roths-the- plot-against-america-in-the-trump-era/).
Sriram, Shyam K. 2022. “West and Irving Know Too Little about the Jewish Experience.” The Canisius Griffin, November 11. Retrieved June 13, 2023 (https://www.griffinnewspaper.com/post/west-and-irving-know-too-little- about-the-jewish-experience).
Shyam K. Sriram is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. He previously taught at Butler University, the College of Charleston, Gonzaga University, Georgia State University, and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Raziya Hillery is a current Fulbright Scholar in Peru and hopes to pursue a career in international affairs. She is a 2022 alumna of Butler University where she majored in political science. She was also a 2021 Rangel Summer Enrichment Program Scholar.
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