| abstract
| - The novel shares the same basic premise as the short story; Iosef Dzhugashvili's parents left Georgia and moved to California a few months before Iosef was born. Rather than becoming Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, Iosef becomes "Joe Steele", American lawyer and Democratic politician, eventually becoming a congressman from California. Similarly, the families of several of Stalin's OTL cronies, specifically Vince Scriabin, Lazar Kagan, and Stas Mikoian, also arrived in California, although this improbable plot contrivance is never addressed. Unlike the short story, which is told by an omniscient third-person narrator (apparently representing the American everyman), the novel is told by through POVs of two journalist brothers, Mike and Charlie Sullivan. The novel begins at the 1932 Democratic Convention as Steele vies for the presidential nomination with Franklin D. Roosevelt. Charlie favors Steele, and Mike backs FDR. When FDR dies in a mysterious fire, Steele wins the nomination, and defeats incumbent Herbert Hoover in the November election. However, Charlie witnessed Vince Scriabin make a long distance phone call with (Charlie assumes) orders to kill Roosevelt, a fact he shared with Mike. During his first term, Steele forges an alliance with like minded individuals, such as J. Edgar Hoover. He strong arms Congress into accepting his Four Year Plan with Hoover's help. He also rails against Adolf Hitler and Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, and uses them as boogeymen to justify certain of his more repressive tactics. In 1934, after several of the laws he's backed are overturned by the Supreme Court, he orders the arrest of four particularly conservative justices, and has them placed before a military tribunal. The justices admit their guilt and are swiftly executed. Steele also suspends habeas corpus and arranges for the deaths of other opponents. Concurrently, Charlie Sullivan vocally defends Steele, thus gaining entrance in to Steele's inner circle, while Mike is an ardent critic. Steele wins a second term handily, and survives an assassination attempt by an Army captain. Steele uses this attack as an excuse to purge the military. He also sets up labor camps for dissidents and creates the Government Bureau of Investigation, with J. Edgar Hoover at its head. By the middle of Steele's second term, Mike Sullivan goes too far, and is finally arrested, convicted, and sent to Montana, despite his brother's best efforts. World War II breaks out in September 1939, on the same schedule as OTL, with Steele promising neutrality, and winning an unprecedented third term in 1940. Steele nonetheless provides aid to the United Kingdom throughout 1940. When Germany attacks the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill convinces Steele to extend aid to Trotsky as well, although it takes month after the German invasion for this to happen. In short order, Charlie Sullivan becomes Steele's speechwriter, and his entrance into Steele's inner circle is complete. He is present for several key moments, such as Steele's first meeting with Churchill, the Basra Conference, and the revelation that Albert Einstein hid the theoretical atomic bomb from Steele. Steele is able to secure another term in 1944. While he won fairly in 1932 and 1936, he implicitly began rigging the election in 1940, and continues to do so in 1944, although with the war going quite well in all theaters, the tampering is limited. Mike Sullivan spends several years in the Montana camp. When Japan attacks the U.S. in December 1941, Mike, with nothing left to lose, volunteers for the Army, and fights in the Pacific, even participating the eventual invasion of Japan in November 1945 through April 1946. He remains part of the occupation of Japan as it is divided between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., resulting in two puppet states, North and South Japan. In 1948, in a parallel of the OTL Korean War, North Japan attacks South Japan, forcing Steele to actually have to campaign in 1948. The Japanese War ends in August, 1949 with the deployment of atomic bombs by both sides. Mike is able to return home in the 1950s, but he is still limited to Wyoming. Steele wins for what proves to be the last time in 1952. He dies of a stroke in March 5, 1953 - Stalin died in the Kremlin on the same date in OTL. His long marginalized Vice President, John Nance Garner, is sworn in, and begins to undo some of Steele's policies, including the firing of nearly the entire Steele cabinet. Unfortunately, he's met with resistance from Vince Scriabin and J. Edgar Hoover. Soon, Garner is facing impeachment for the crimes of the Steele administration. The suspicious deaths of Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Secretary of War George Marshall, the only two people left who could legally replace Garner, add further pressure to the crisis. While Scriabin is killed in a car accident, it's too late: Garner is impeached, convicted and removed from office. Without a legal successor to the presidency, J. Edgar Hoover takes control of the executive, claiming Congress is now acting unconstitutionally. While Mike is able to make a quiet life for himself in Wyoming, Charlie is now in the eye of the storm. He initially remains in Garner's good graces, but once Garner is ousted, Hoover has him fired. The novel ends "up in the air" with Charlie about to be arrested by Hoover's GBI men.
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