Philip Roth

Series Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Roth's America; Part 1: American Pastoral; Introduction to Part 1; 2 "What was not supposed to happen had happened and what was supposed to happen had not happened": Subverting History in American Pastoral, David Brauner; 3. The Critique of the Pastoral, Utopia, and the American Dream in American Pastoral, Andrew Gordon; 4. America's Haunted House: The Racial and National Uncanny in American Pastoral, Jennifer Glaser; Part II: The Human Stain; Introduction to Part 2; 5. Race, Recognition, and Responsibility in The Human Stain, Dean Franco; 6. Possessed by the Past: History, Nostalgia, and Language in The Human Stain, Catherine Morley; 7. "The Pointless Meaningfulness of Living": Illuminating The Human Stain through The Scarlet Letter, Gabrielle Seeley and Jeffrey Rubin-Dorsky; Part III: The Plot Against America; Introduction to Part 3; 8. Just Folks Homesteading: Roth's Doubled Plots Against America,Brett Ashely Kaplan; 9. My Life as a Boy: The Plot Against America, Elaine M. Kauvar; 10. Autobiography and History in The Plot Against America, or What Happened When Hitler Came to New Jersey, Timothy Parrish; Collected Notes; Works Cited; Further Reading; Notes on Contributors; Index.

Debra Shostak is Professor of English at The College of Wooster, Ohio. She is author of Philip Roth - Counterlives, Countertexts (2004).

'Philip Roth's historical works American Pastoral, The Human Stain, and The Plot Against America stand as perhaps the most notable in his oeuvre. In this collection, Debra Shostak shows us the significance of these novels by bringing together an insightful collection of original essays. No other study on these late-period works comes close to capturing what is sure to be seen as Roth's high point as an author. Here is where readers need to begin.'--Sanford Lakoff