It Can't Happen Here

Written by Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by Christopher Hurt

First published in 1935, when Americans were still largely oblivious to the rise of Hitler in Europe, this prescient novel tells a cautionary tale of the fragility of democracy and offers an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find how many people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Mar 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781433222054

Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American author and playwright. As a child, Lewis struggled to fit in with both his peers and family. He was much more sensitive and introspective than his brothers, so he had a difficult time connecting to his father. Lewis’ troubling childhood was one of the reasons he was drawn to religion, though he would struggle with it throughout most of his young adult life, until he became an atheist. Known for his critical views of American capitalism and materialism, Lewis was often praised for his authenticity as a writer. With over twenty novels, four plays, and around seventy short stories, Lewis was a very prolific author. In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for literature, setting an inspiring precedent for future American writers.

Reviews for It Can't Happen Here

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was published in 1935. An American Liberal newspaper editor endures the descent into fascism by his country. He passes from relatively polite dissent to concentration camp prisoner, to undercover agent. The novel deals as well on the effect of his activities on his family, and community. It is a bit prosy for the modern taste, but sharp eyed. This is not the tight fit to conditions in the age of Trump that some people would have it but not bad for the time. The more you know about the 1930’s and its American politics, the better.

[aevaughn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Regarding Presidential Candidate Windrip’s nomination convention with the description of the procession: "Leading it, in old blue uniforms, were two G.A.R. veterans, and between, arm-in-arm with them, a Confederate in gray. … The Confederate carried a Virginia regimental banner, torn as by shrapnel; and one of the Union veterans lifted high a slashed flag of the First Minnesota. … Lee Sarason [,public relations manager,] never told anyone save Buzz Windrip that both flags had been manufactured .. in 1929, for the patriotic drama, 'Morgan’s Riding'."Stunning imagery such as above brings to mind the gold veneer of the Gilded Age.

[trile1000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A chilling warning not to take democracy for granted. This sharp satire follows the rise of an American fascist. We see events through the eyes of Doremus Jessup, a small-town newspaper editor who witnesses the election of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip in 1936. A colorful politician based on Huey Long, the controversial Louisiana politician, Windrip triumphs on a platform of populist reforms and traditional values. However, he leads the transformation of the government into a totalitarian state ruled by fear and enforced by the blue-clad Minute Men, an American version of the Nazi Brownshirts. We follow Doremus's bitter struggle against the government and his role in the resistance. The book is an alarming reminder that American freedoms are fragile and is still relevant today.

[dasam-5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful Dystopian Political Novel

What seems at first a farce with a snicker, surprises over the course of the story into a dark Dystopian alternative history of the United States. It remains relevant and frightening, with a main character who is too good willed to believe that a Fascist dictatorship can happen and thus becomes ne of its enablers. He redeems himself by becoming a rebel, a political prisoner, and eventually an agent. The novel does not end with an easy resurrection of American democracy, but is hopeful in its inconclusive final chapter.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well...this is familiar. It was eerie how easily the dictatorship fell into place and I could see this (reasonably easily) happen today. As to the story itself, the writing wasn't as dense and disjointed as Lewis's more famous work - The Jungle. The characters were well developed and multi-faceted. The prose was poetic in places. A good read.

[seth_g · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We're a decade into the 21st century, and the increasing control of big banks and big corporations over all aspects of daily life, mixed with a political populism that appeals to all that's worst in the citizenry, is the stuff of nightmares. It's not the first time this particular nightmare has troubled the sleep of those who value the social compact that emerged in the past century.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis, first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1930), published a dystopian classic that is little read or remembered today. It should be. It Can't Happen Here, of course, posits that it can happen here, and more easily than we'd like to think.

The bugbears of the tale are Communists (which we didn't get over until 1989) and Liberals, which are still regarded as traitors by those who refuse to accept the legitimacy of any Democrat in the White House. And the populists--with their emphasis on corporate sovereignty, their lip service to Main Street, their obsession with guns, and their demands for the invasion of Mexico--don't seem dated at all. They call themselves the Corpos, but they're really just a tea party.

We follow a small-town everyman, a newspaper editor who loses his paper to the propagandists, his freedom to totalitarian courts, and his self-respect to the bullies of every stripe. It's a dark tale that is leavened with the ironic humor Lewis puts in the mouth of his characters. And it is startlingly prescient: Lewis knew just where Hitler and Mussolini were headed. And where I sometimes feel we're headed today because, of course, it can't happen here.

[beyerkat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Terrifying given today's political climate.

[quaintlittlehead · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book first came to my attention when a newspaper article compared character Buzz Windrip to Donald Trump in the 2016 election cycle. Indeed, much of my confusion about how such a person came to be the major candidate for his party is echoed in the beginning of Lewis' book. This is a fine exploration of what might happen when Americans dismiss a political candidate's more disturbing statements as mere rhetoric and elect him anyway. Surprisingly but wisely, much of the story focusses on the impact of the new fascist regime on a particular family, rather than recounting events as a historian would. This underscores the idea that politics is not only personal in terms of the impact it has on individual lives, but that each citizen is responsible for how his government operates. However, as much as modern readers might like to see the novel merely as a cautionary tale for America (or as much as some may look to it as prophecy), the book can not be separated from the context in which it was originally written. Punctuated with journalistic reports from foreign visitors to America about how everything in the country appears to be going wonderfully, Lewis' novel is a scathing rebuke to an America that turned a blind eye to Hitler's atrocities throughout the 1930s. This, too, is sadly a message that America still needs. We wish to believe not only that it can't happen here, but that it isn't happening anywhere. Lewis reminds us soberly that neither is true.

[dickmanikowski · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

While I read several of Sinclair Lewis's novels years ago, I had never even heard of this one until it was mentioned in one of the dozens of stories I've read about Trumpmania. IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE is the story of a really folksy populist politician who manages to secure the 1932 Democratic nomination (besting "Frank" Roosevelt) and then handily winning the presidential race. Upon taking office, the new president (Buzz Windrip) starts implementing the 15 plank platform that so endeared him with his supporters. With the assistance of his top-level confederates and the militia he had created during his campaign, he quickly establishes an increasingly fascistic dictatorship.The novel focuses on the editor of a small town newspaper in New England who ultimately becomes part of the resistance movement. While the plot is interesting, this is a long, long, long read.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I never would have read this book if it were not for the current horrifying state of political affairs in the US. It was a long slog, as one reviewer said, and I was surprised at how turgid (stealing from another reviewer) the writing was. Dated, stilted language - it seemed as though he was trying to get the slang of the 30s down, but the dialogue just didn't sound natural. And with a demagogue/dictator elected President, you'd think there would have been more of a plot, but it was just boring. And, to pile on, the torture scenes seemed gratuitous.It's too bad. A more nuanced approach could have shed some light on what IS happening here now.

[devil_llama · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lewis's depression era classic is, like many of his other works, lengthy and somewhat turgid prose, filled with a veritable stable of stock characters and broad stereotypes; the main character, however, is much more nuanced and richly drawn, and one suspects he is writing a reflective character here. Although it is filled with a great deal of unnecessary verbiage and more description than is required to get the piece across, the work still has a great deal of merit as a slice of Americana and a look at what could happen (still could). In fact, one begins to suspect the Tea Party read this, and misinterpreted it as an instruction manual. A very important book, especially for anyone who claims to believe such things can't happen here. The only problem is that the broad nature of his characters, the fact that they are basic stereotypes, probably prevented, andn would still prevent, many individuals from recognizing themselves, allowing them to shrug and say, "yes, but it can't happen here".

[ghr4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the wake of the 2016 presidential campaign, the shocking electoral result, and the frightening first few weeks of the new administration, Sinclair Lewis's remarkably prescient 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here has never been more noteworthy. In this work of alternate history, Senator Buzz Windrip, a flamboyant populist/anti-establishment demagogue receives the 1936 Democratic nomination over FDR and wins the presidency. So begins the de-evolution of the United States and its political and social norms and conventions into a ruthless dictatorship. The unfolding nightmare and descent into depravity is viewed through the eyes of the townspeople of bucolic Fort Beulah, Vermont, particularly Doremus Jessup, the idealistic editor of the local newspaper, The Daily Informer. While this is not an easy or pleasant read, given Lewis's halting and often uneven literary style and the lurid descriptions of brutality, it is an important and timely work. It is fascinating to note the similarities to our present day situation, especially regarding the elements of Windrip's populist message. And of particular note is the character of Lee Sarason, the satanic chief consultant who is the brain behind the mask and bellowing voice of Windrip.In D.J. Dooley's 1967 literary criticism The Art of Sinclair Lewis, the author is haughtily dismissive of the book: "It is all too fantastic; it could convince only those already convinced, and to anyone else its improbabilities would be reassuring evidence that there was nothing to worry about... the story is in the realm of fairyland. Lewis can't fool us; these ogres aren't real; it can't happen here."Dooley is mistaken. It can happen here.

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written and set in the 1930s, this was brilliant satire, terrifying in its accuracy. A dictator is elected by gullible people based on promises of upholding good old American values, liberty, strength, protecting US interests and giving everyone (excluding negroes of course) $5000. During his campaign he would "...coldly and almost contemptuously jab his audience with figures and facts, figures and facts that were inescapable even when, as often happened, they were entirely incorrect."After the despot's election, his cabinet is filled with rich cronies. The government sets up work camps and jails newspaper reporters and anyone else deemed a threat to the regime. However, the $5000 never materializes. There is a plot to start a war with Mexico to distract the masses and provide medals for the soldiers supporting the regime. I was hoping that the author, who was so prescient in predicting the problem, also had a solution. Unfortunately, getting rid of a dictator is not that easy. I'm also afraid that this book could provide handy hints for those seeking to consolidate their power (assuming that they read).I would have found this book much more amusing if I had read it a few years ago.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In an alternate United States history, set in the 1930's, an unqualified man with dictatorial intentions wins the presidency and institutes martial law, imprisoning all who disagree with him. A small-town newspaper editor and his friends set up a small local underground cell to try and fight for the lives and freedoms they miss.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important novel that shows no matter how unique and novel we think our current political situation is, a lot of it was feared and conceived of prior by this author. Many interesting parallels can be drawn between Berzelius Windrip and our current cheeto-hued toddler of a president. A chilling reminder that "it" absolutely can happen here and we the people must remain vigilant that it does not. I really identified with our protagonist, Doremus Jessup, as a "middle-class intellectual" who is rather comfortably in denial that there are enough citizens who can't see through the propaganda and chicanery of Windrip's campaign and seriously believe his promises enough to vote for him, thinking he'll give them a better life. At least Windrip's M.M.'s (private militia; paid better than any enlisted man) are getting a return on their investment. I don't think any citizen making less than a million a year has seen his or her situation improve under The Angry Creamsicle. This book was chosen by my (white, suburban, middle-aged ladies) book club, and not one of us was able to get all the way through it in the two months we had to read it. It was either too depressing, too dense or had too many references to people and events from the 20's and 30's that we were not familiar with. That was my problem. I kept going to look things up and falling down Wikipedia holes. I will probably slog my way through the rest of the book, but my heart really went out of it about halfway through when [spoiler] Doremus' son-in-law was unceremoniously and abruptly shot.[/spoiler]. It's disheartening, but the parallels are too prescient and accurate to discount.

[razinha-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What does it mean that I highlighted this, a work of fiction, as much or more than some of my recent nonfiction reads?

This is scary stuff. It wasn't. It was speculative political fantasy. But...Lewis was uncanny...so many premonitions of the stupidity of 2016. Now, Lewis was WAY off in casting the evil as a representative of a particular party, but the devolution of the modern extreme {other party} into thuggery, predating on fears, appealing to ignorance, counting on ignorance, post dates Lewis's writing by a bit. I hope you-know-who's team doesn't read this to get any more ideas. Of course, the bulk of the book concerns what happens after the dictator takes control, so it remains to be seen if Lewis's, and our, worst nightmares are realized...

[martialalex92 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

oddly prescient given our current time

[toddtyrtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scary - he writes about the George W. Bush presidency decades before it occurred. Fortunately W's rule ended differently than this book did...

[drfuriosa · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Much has been made of Sinclair Lewis's projected vision of fascist America and our current political climate. It's not wrong, and it's worth noting. But it's nevertheless frustrating to read something that you're already living--yes, we know that Trump is a Buzz Windrip and every vain, incompetent ruler ever, but there's no satisfaction or catharsis in the reading experience. And the writing is just not there.

[socprof9740 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I guess now is a really good time to (re-)read this. It is indeed prescient.

[donhazelwood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Na ... it can't happen here ...

[kohrmanmj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It starts slow and was tough to wade through. I think my problem may have been the timing of when I read this book, which changed it from an Atwood-esque cautionary tale into an eerie and foreboding omen. 2.5 stars. I didn't enjoy it, but I appreciate Lewis' ability to semi-accurately examine the American populace and predict our future stupidity.

[lavaturtle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As everyone who recommended this book has said, for a work published in 1935, it's eerily prescient. The writing style is a bit dated, full of page-long sentences that go on and on, and many of the references are less familiar now, but the overarching plot of America's takeover by a folksy demagogue is certainly still quite relevant. I was surprised by the references to Hitler and concentration camps, which I imagine read quite differently before World War II... There's a bit of misogyny and disdain for gay men, but rather less than I would have expected for the time period. Overall, it was an interesting look into where the writer thought we were headed in the 1930s.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Though some parts of the book are politically dated and move fairly slow, with no total military takeover and murders of Democrats, Socialists, or Independents,the fascist terror has already taken place under the current administration in 2020.The ending is a little confused. It people can still safely escape, why don't they ALL go?

[reenum_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Before November 2016, this book would have read like an alarmist dystopian fantasy. Instead, this book shows us what would happen if the Trump administration was allowed to do everything they want to do. It is a reminder of what can happen when democratic norms erode. Berzelius Windrip is Donald Trump if he was minimally competent. The fact that Trump is such a bumbling dope is all that separates us from the reality in this book. The Windrip platform points listed in one of the early chapters sound a lot like the policy proposals I read on Trump's campaign website before the election. The ending of the book gives some grudging hope that if Trump goes too far, somebody will act to stop him. This book is important, but also depressing given current events.Recommended.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I am abandoning this a few chapters in. It’s not without merit, but something is wrong with it. Having ground to a halt mid-way through a sentence I picked up The Handmaid’s Tale and read the opening chapter and it’s quite apparent that the difference is between an author who has thought about each word before she slaps it on the page and an author who hasn’t. I’m 41 now and don’t have the time to read thoughtless words.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A novel published in 1935 by Minnesotan author Sinclair Lewis. This novel is a political novel and a satire has had a recent rise in popularity as some have liked to compare this to the current administration. Really, this book was written in 1935 when fascism was on the rise and it explores what it would be like if the US had a fascist government and how that might come happen. The story itself is interesting alternate history, satire. "Written as two very different populists rose to power — Louisiana Senator Huey Long in the U.S. and Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany — the semi-satirical novel imagines a Democratic U.S. Senator, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, appealing to nativists in order to successfully secure the party nomination over Franklin Delano Roosevelt." From Times magazine. BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN NOVEMBER 16, 2016I am not much for reading political novels but over all this was an entertaining story and if you really read it, you will see that it doesn't matter, which side your on, politicians make promises that they don't keep and I don't think it is a given that people who have traditional values and patriotism are bad people and I don't think it is nice to call people who don't agree with your own political viewpoints names such as fascist. Nor are all socialist good and wonderful people without selfish ambition. Never the less, the current social and political times gave this book a second life. Also the author being a Minnesotan, Minnesota had a lot of honorable mentions throughout the book. Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930, the first American novelist to be so honored. Here is blurb from Penguin "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."It reminds me of The Iron Heel, The Jungle, and The Plot Against America.Rating 3.83

[mossjon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Written in the 30s, during the depths of the Depression, before World War II, this dystopian classic paints a grim picture of America's fall into it's own flavor of fascism. Some of his assertions stretched my belief nearly to the breaking point, most notable being the seemingly easy evaporation of two of our three branches of government after the League of Forgotten Men rise in power and seize the executive branch.

The novel follows the life of Jessup Doremus, an elderly (nearly retirement age) editor of a small town Vermont newspaper, uniquely positioned to lead us down the slippery slope of disappearing civil liberties and rising paranoia among the citizenry. The evils promulgated by petty near-thugs upon strangers, neighbors, friends and family ... almost indiscriminately ... all as an exercise in absolute power (as far as I could tell).

Not a comforting read, except for a brief glimpse of hope at the end. I can understand the shock value it would have had when it was published. I'm glad I read it, and even more glad none of it has proved prophetic for America ... yet.

I read this novel as one of the suggested readings for my local library's adult winter reading program called 'Altered States' and blogged about my reading journey.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This classic novel speculates on the rise of fascism in the United States during the 1930s, an eventuality that many people felt couldn't happen here, and so were not on guard against. A populist U.S. senator defeats FDR for the presidential nomination, and after winning the election, establishes a dictatorship with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force. Many critics consider the senator character to be a reference to Huey Long, who was preparing to run for president when the novel was published. Lewis's prose is stuffed with florid description and turgid prose, dating the novel and making it hard to plod through (in fact, I didn't get all the way through before giving up). While some of the statements made by many characters seem prescient in that they could be spoken by any Tea Partier today, some of the novel's assertions strain belief, so that I wasn't entirely convinced that it could happen here. This is still a noteworthy early dystopia/alternate history. Didn't finish (2013).

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

07AUG2016 - Written in 1937, this is a novel of alternate history in which the American populace elects Buzz Windrup into office, and ushers in an era of fascism. Every thing in the story has a reason for being there, i.e. it's all to illustrate a point. The didactic style doesn't make it the easiest of reads; but the story itself is compelling as it follows a newspaper editor who, while not voting for Windrup, was guilty of being rather complacent in thinking that whatever was happening in Germany and Italy couldn't possibly happen here in the USA. 14AUG2016 - Lewis' wife was Dorothy Thompson, was a journalist who accurately reported, to an incredulous American audience, what was going on in Germany during the rise of Nazism. Lewis himself turned away from the popular satires he had been known for to write this alternate history of the US in which Roosevelt loses the election to a fascist. The didactic style and serious message(s) don't make this an easy read; but it's one that makes you think regardless of your political affiliation. Read the Introduction by Michael Meyer afterward (if you are the type to read intros at all) as it's a bit spoilerific; and be prepared to set some time aside when you're done with the whole thing for some self-assessment - especially if you like to engage online over political topics. Highly recommend as being relevant to today's political landscape.