Book Log 2015 #30: Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove

This may be the first alternative history book I've read that was inspired by a Janis Ian song (though it's original version appeared in an entire anthology of stories based on her songs). Anyway, in the song "God & the FBI," Ian sings that Stalin was a Democrat, which got Turtledove thinking what would have happened had Stalin actually been an American and a Democratic politician.

In this case, Stalin's parents emigrate to the US before his birth in California. He grows up in the Fresno area, steeped in the politics of the region and it's agricultural workers. When 1932 comes around he is the only person who has a chance to win the Democratic nomination for President from FDR, a chance that he may or may not have advanced by applying rough and tumble tactics - and a liberal amount of flammable material - to take FDR out of the picture. From there on out, we see how Steele applied his personal brand of leftist, totalitarian politics to get the country through the Depression, World War II, and everything else that happened during his many terms in office.

The story is mostly told through the eyes of two journalist brothers, one who is supportive enough of Steele to start working for the administration in the White House. The other, not so much. Their relationship frames the central conflict of freedom versus security that's at the heart of the book.

I don't know if really accept that Steele would become an Americanized version of Stalin, or that there wouldn't be more resistance to a politician who took such extreme measures as depicted in the book. On the other hand, desperate people can be manipulated fairly easily, so I may just be deluding myself.

One positive is that I think this is the first Turtledove book in about a decade where no one sketched a salute at someone else. Some of his favorite terms to describe people smoking do pop up, but overall the hackneyed phrase quotient seemed to decline. The use of real life people in supporting roles - such as J. Edgar Hoover and references to Richard Nixon towards the end of the book - was also well done, and helped to set up the next book in what I assume will be a series. So overall, better than some of the recent Turtledove work, which is not necessarily a high bar to clear (looking at you, Supervolcano books).