It Can't Happen Here
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4.1 • 120 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.”—Salon
It Can’t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis’s later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.
Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.
Called “a message to thinking Americans” by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.
Includes an Introduction by Michael Meyer
and an Afterword by Gary Scharnhorst
Customer Reviews
Some things don’t ever seem to change
I read the book imagining every word of dialogue coming from a modern politicians mouth and every political act being carried out by Americas current gaggle of political actors. I saw every one of the in the scene. Only the names have been changed. Corporate ownership of the government will be our eventual demise.
Not easy but worth it
I went looking for this book after reading a review embedded within a political commentary printed recently. Written in 1936, it is a satire written and then reworked for publication in response to the political situation of the time.
It is biting commentary set in trying times. It also reflects our post 9/11 world. It is NOT an easy book but the commentator who suggested it was spot on in that someone could change the names and it might fit well into today's political maelstrom.
Like I have said, hard to read, but stay with it.