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–Adapted from Philip Roth, the new series from the creator of “The Wire” and “The Deuce” focuses on the daily life of a Jewish family in a nightmare America which brought the anti-Semite Lindbergh to power in 1941. A superb intimate dystopia.–
June 1940. France has just fallen under the blows of Germany, which turns its eyes towards England. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Republican Party is trying to block President Franklin D. Roosevelt by entrusting his candidacy to Charles Lindbergh, genuine American hero and notorious anti-Semite. Adapted from a novel by Philip Roth, the new miniseries by David Simon (The Wire) sacrifices historical veracity and poor Wendell Willkie, a real Republican candidate in 1940, here reduced to the role of radio agitator. In this nightmarish world, which Roth used to tell about his childhood, Lindbergh assumes loud and clear his political views and becomes the cantor of the «America first», stoking hatred against foreign partisans, Jews and Communists who would like to drag the United States into a new world war.
What retreats are we ready to accept in order to save our comfort (peace here, the economy elsewhere)? This is the question asked by David Simon and his pal Ed Burns as they scrutinize the first two years of a terrifying administration of cynicism and brutality. “History is a powerful rhetorical tool, explained the showrunner to
GermanyCanadaSaint-LouisPopulismAntisemitism– .
