"It Can't Happen Here" - Sinclair Lewis

[Roland99]

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/09/far04030.html

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis penned the cautionary tale, It Can’t Happen Here, chronicling the fictional rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, who becomes President against the protests of Franklin D. Roosevelt and America’s saner citizens.

A charismatic Senator who claims to champion the common man, Windrip is in the pocket of big business (i.e. Corpos), is favored by religious extremists, and though he talks of freedom and prosperity for all, he eventually becomes the ultimate crony capitalist. Boosted by Hearst newspapers (the FOX News of its day), he neuters both Congress and the Supreme Court, before stripping people of their liberties and installing a fascist dictatorship.

One might argue, of course, that since It Can’t Happen Here was written nearly seven decades ago and America has yet to succumb to fascism, the book is the product of a novelist's runaway imagination, with an interesting yet less than probable theme. But then again, the same might have been said of George Orwell's 1984, before most realized that the book is brilliantly prescient -- and merely off by a couple decades.

<...>

America is haunted by past sins, to be sure, and Sinclair Lewis craftily presents a series of them as a primer for what the "land of the free" is capable of. "Why, there’s no country in the world that can get more hysterical—yes, or more obsequious!—than America. Look how Huey Long became absolute monarch over Louisiana. . . Listen to Bishop Prang and Father Coughlin on the radio—divine oracles, to millions. Remember how casually most Americans have accepted Tammany grafting and Chicago gangs and the crookedness of so many of President Harding’s appointees?. . . Remember the Kuklux Klan?. . . Remember our Red scares and our Catholic scares. . .and the Republicans campaigning against Al Smith told the Carolina mountaineers that if Al won the Pope would illegitimatize their children?. . .Remember how trainloads of people have gone to enjoy lynchings? Not happen here? Prohibition—shooting down people just because they MIGHT be transporting liquor—no, that couldn’t happen in AMERICA! Where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!"

http://www.buzzflash.com/premiums/05/04/pre05049.html#more

Just a few weeks ago, "It Can't Happen Here" was reissued, after being out of print, as a Signet paperback classic.

One online reviewer wrote: The book "starts with the highly contested election of an oafish yet strangely charismatic president, who talks like a 'reformer' but is really in the pocket of big business, who claims to be a home-spun 'humanist,' while appealing to religious extremists, and who speaks of 'liberating' women and minorities, as he gradually strips them of all their rights. One character, when describing him, says, 'I can't tell if he's a crook or a religious fanatic.'.... The president, taking advantage of an economic crisis, strong-arms Congress into signing blank checks over to the military and passing stringent and possibly unconstitutional laws, e.g. punishing universities when they don't permit military recruiting or are not vociferous enough in their approval of his policies. Eventually, he takes advantage of the crisis to convene military tribunals for civilians, and denounce all of his detractors as unpatriotic and possibly treasonous."

Buy the book:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=T284UgHBXl&isbn=0451525825&itm=1

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=T284UgHBXl&isbn=0451529294&itm=2

[Mr Rabble]

1. Great book!

[yurbud]

2. I read it after Elmer Gantry and thought it didn't ring true...

that it really couldn't happen here.

Then it did.

[Zen Democrat]

3. This book was reissued on March 1, 2005 and is available

from Amazon and Barnes & Noble among others in paperback for $7.95. I'm ordering mine right now.

[theliberalavenger]

6. No shit...

I wanted it bad last summer and ended up buying a 1st edition through ABEBooks.com for $65.

[Kire]

4. It was on the top of John Kerry's pile of books last year.

The picture of him in his study was featured on Frontline on October 14th.

http://www.counterbias.com/149.html

[Mist]

5. Found a paperback a few years ago - I didn't realize it's been out

of print. I found it very believable. I think Lewis was very perceptive about American society and politics of the time.

[pnorman]

7. Here's an online version of it:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html

Surprisingly, there's a favorable review (from a "liberal" perspective) on World Nut Daily: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25427

I have a copy of that book in a text form, that I downloaded into my PDA (Sony TH-55).

pnorman

[Roland99]

8. Thanks!

[AlinPA]

9. I just read it this past December. Along with "Handmaid's Tale", it makes

a good picture of where these republicans are taking the country. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood tells about where we are headed with the Falwells and Santorums and Frists.

[lukasahero]

12. Me too

Talk about being depressed - I read one after the other and was ready to jump off a bridge by the time I was done. ;-)

[Krupskaya]

10. Read this book.

I first read it in 1999 and kind of went, "Ha, ha!"

Then I reread it in 2001 and went "meh."

Then I reread (yeah, I'm big on rereading) it late last year and said to Mr. K: "We've got to watch out."

It's a great book. Excellent writing and a good story.

[Fifth of Five]

11. Sounds like the

Republican play-book.

[mourningdove92]

13. I ordered my copy

last night. Can't wait to read it. Kindof looks like Roves playbook.