Summary and Analysis of It Can't Happen Here

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of It Can’t Happen Here tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Sinclair Lewis’s book.

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This short summary and analysis of It Can’t Happen Here includes:

Historical contextChapter-by-chapter overviewsProfiles of the main charactersDetailed timeline of key eventsThemes and symbolsImportant quotes and analysisFascinating triviaGlossary of termsSupporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis:

Sinclair Lewis’s satirical novel It Can’t Happen Here documents the rise of a fascist government in the United States.

It follows a small town newspaper editor, Doremus Jessup, as he watches his country come out of economic depression only to embrace a smoke-and-mirrors presidential candidate who wraps himself in patriotic zeal. This charismatic demagogue and his cronies amass power and wealth as the rest of the population watches its rights and freedoms disappear.

There is censorship, the random violence of an unchecked paramilitary force, and the emergence of concentration camps. Jews, foreigners, and intellectuals are singled out for especially brutal treatment. Universities are taken over and books are burned.

As he watches the devastating toll exacted from his friends and family, the once easygoing Jessup is swept into an underground resistance movement in which he must ignore his moral compass. A revolution is launched, but the outcome is uncertain.

Lewis’s dystopian work asks: could it happen here and, if it does, how would it be stopped?

The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction.