Customer Reviews

It Can't Happen Here: A Novel

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Surprisingly, Sinclair Lewis' darkly humorous tale of a fascist takeover in the US, "It Can't Happen Here," is not merely out-of-print, but also quite hard to find. As dated as it is (1935), its themes will be quite familiar to Americans today. It 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."
After he becomes elected, he puts the media - at that time, radio and newspapers - under the supervision of the military and slowly begins buying up or closing down media outlets. William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his times, directs his newspapers to heap unqualified praise upon the president and his policies, and gradually comes to develop a special relationship with the government. 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.
I'll stop here, as I don't want to ruin the story -- I can imagine that you can see where all this is going.

Sinclair Lewis' greatest achievement with "It Can't Happen Here" is his ability to reflect the subtle holds that Fascism can take in an otherwise rational and democratic country. Each step of the plot, no matter how seemingly insignificant or unrelated, contributes to the inevitable political conclusion. As the story progresses, it gradually becomes clearer to the reader how our individual prejudices and selfish desires can collectively turn us against the very freedom America prides itself upon.

Fascism is here viewed as an implosion of American culture: the weight of mass media, of the desire for security and comfort, and of endemic nationalism caves in at the touch of a charismatic politician. Lewis exposes the weaknesses in our country's foundations; he shows a careful yet precarious balance of society and politics where we otherwise think we are solid. As others have noted, this book preceded the rise of Nazism in Europe. It is a testament to Lewis' grasp of fascism that much of his novel was mirrored in the chaotic climate of 1930's Germany and Italy.

Where the book falters, however, is in some of its more outlandish caricatures of the villains, including orgies, bed-time assassins, and overwrought speeches. Despite the power of these metaphors, they weaken the plausibility of "it can happen here." Nonetheless, this novel serves as an excellent warning against the dangers of cults of personality and of mob mentality. I strongly recommend "It Can't Happen Here" to remind anyone that the freedom of thought should not be taken for granted.

....it can happen here. Anyone who is aware of current news and political issues and history, will find this book, written in the 1930's, to be astonishing. I read this in high school, and remembered it years later when I was putting books on my web page. Why did I remember it? Sinclair Lewis wrote this long before the world became aware of what was going on in Nazi Germany. This illustrates the often ignored fact that we can tell what is going on around us, if only we listen to the signs and signals, and stop burying our heads in..oh, well, in books and the internet and TV shows. He takes the story to America, where people's response to what's going on in the world is "It Can't Happen Here" (not that any of us would say that these days...). Anything that Can't Happen Here, then, isn't our problem. Until, of course, it happens here...

This is a good book to read if you like messages in your fiction - (did you enjoy reading "The Lottery?")

To quote one of the characters early on: "Like h*ll it can't."

Windrip is the charismatic politician: a great showman, but not comfortable when people use big words. He's swept into office on a tide of revival tent enthusiasm and anti-intellectual popularism. He promises a pot of money for everyone, and (this is the 1930s, remember) promises to put in their place all the right minorities with the strong arm of his loyal followers. Of course people vote for riches for everyone - or at least, everyone who matters.

Then he's in. The loyal followers become a private army, answerable to no one. The nation is redrawn into a network of concentration camps, prisons, labor camps, and terrified citizenry. The bulk of the book documents the incredibly rapid decline into barbarity. Despite the crushing tyrrany, a resistance emerge, and among people who might not have looked very brave. Without giving any spoilers, the end is ambiguous but optimistic.

The first half of the book is pretty much guaranteed to give you that sinking feeling if you've read the news in (or about) the America of Pres. Bush II. The rise of fundamentalist Christians as a political force has a familiar sound to it. So does the the discussion of "... when the hick legislators in certain states ... set up shop as scientific experts and made the whole world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of evolution."

I want this book to be irrelevant. I want people to look at it and ask "what is he talking about? who could believe even the first word of it?" I want its warning to be forgotten by people who no longer need to be warned. The fact is that this 70 year old book still as relevant, familiar, and as urgent as ever. This book still matters - or should.

//wiredweird

Given that Sinclair Lewis published this book in 1935, it is difficult to imagine that he wasn't influenced by the little known, aborted attempt by some of America's leading industrialists to promote a military coup in 1934, an attempt to oust control of the U.S. Government from FDR that may only have been prevented by the democratic integrity of General Smedley Butler. Regardless, Lewis penned his own version of a corporate/Fascist takeover that begins with demagogic populism and ends with armed militia, State control of the media, racism, and eventually, concentration camps and executions.

IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE is an extraordinary book, but not for its literary merit. On that score, the book is provincial and horribly dated. Lewis's writing style features convoluted run-ons and his dialog is often laughable. The book's plot grows increasingly over-the-top as the story progresses (including two assassinations in the White House, no less), the characters are absurdly stereotyped, personal relationships are superficial at best, and the characters' names (Macgoblin, Itchitt, Cowlick, Coon, Reek, Skittle, Reverend Paul Peter Prang, Perley Beecroft, Senator Porkwood, and an avid pro-Communist with the inevitable first name, Karl) hearken back to the days of Nathaniel Hawthorne, medieval morality plays, and THE CANTERBURY TALES. For reasons I couldn't fathom, Lewis also seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with Upton Sinclair.

So why read IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE? Divide the book into two elements, the setup and the resolution. The resolution is heavy-handed, more a prediction of Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia than any likely events in the United States. By contrast, the setup is brilliant, and remarkably prescient of today's political environment. Consider just a few aspects of the novel:

-- A President lacking in intellectual capacity but blessed with a Zelig-like ability to appear as a regular guy and everyone's drinking buddy, "...almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his `ideas' almost idiotic...his celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store...[who would] jab his crowds with facts and figures - figures and facts that were inescapable even when, as often happened, they were entirely incorrect."

-- A mysterious Presidential advisor cum puppet master, a wizard at politics and P.R. who "scientifically" builds up his candidate over seven years and then engineers the President's populist campaign, one that includes "tax reform" through the promise of painless, debt free grants of $5,000 to every American family.

-- A holier-than-thou Presidential advisor who engages in homosexual orgies.

-- A blatantly pro-Christian and anti-feminist Administration that opposes the teaching of evolution.

-- A Presidential Administration dominated by Big Business and run in the name of, and for the benefit of, Big Business.

-- An evangelical Christian radio minister who commands a virtual army of followers called the League of Forgotten Men.

-- An administration whose first objective is to elevate the power of the Executive by simultaneously weakening the role of Congress and all but dismissing the Supreme Court.

-- An administration that maintains complete control over information flow, asserts editorial control over the mass media, issues false and misleading pronouncements, suppresses independent reporting, and doctors its own statistics.

-- A mass exodus of Americans to Canada, evolving eventually into a white Underground Railroad when America's borders are sealed.

-- A President surrounded by like-minded yes men, isolated by his staff from the truth, and increasingly removed from contact with ordinary citizens.

-- A Presidential Administration that concocts a phony war with Mexico to create an external bogeyman and distract the citizenry from the country's true problems.

IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE is indeed happening here, at least in part. This book paints a deeply troubling scenario that makes it well worth reading despite its literary shortcomings. Sinclair Lewis was on the right track, just seventy years ahead of his time. Read it, and pray that the more outlandish parts of this story don't come true as well.

Sinclair Lewis is a genius in understanding the American public and the American mind. Yes, he is cynical and somewhat over the top, yet his poignant view about how politicians can manipulate non-thinking people and make them believe that they are part of the "club" (i.e. the ones in power are your intimate friends)and vote for them, even if it is against their daily life interests, still holds true today. One only needs to look at the last elections, where the same manipulations happened as Lewis described in his book in the 1930's. Even if the outcome this time around might be less drastic than those described in the novel, the parallels are amazing. One could read the book and think it was written a few months ago. Astonishing! The language is also delicious, like slow melting chocolate, to relish.

This is a book of 'a 'Liberal', scorned by all the nosiest prophets for refusing to be a willing cat for the busy monkeys ... at worst, the Liberals, the Tolerant, might in the long term preserve some of the arts of civilisation.'
Why is he a liberal? Because 'everything in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit', and 'the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever.'

But this formidable book contains also a clear warning: 'the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.' 'We can go back to the Dark Ages! The crust of learning and tolerance is so thin.'

This book is the story of a democratically elected US dictator: a demagogue with a racist and antifeminist agenda, who turns the US into a fascist State: 'He treated the entire nation like a well-run plantation on which the slaves were better fed than formerly, less often cheated by their overseers, and kept so busy that they had time only for work and for sleep.'
This book is the work of a visionary (Mao's China, Franco's Spain, Stalin's USSR, Pinochet's Chili, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Suharto's Indonesia, Hitler's Germany, Castro's Cuba...): 'People were afraid to say whatever came to their tongues ... men looked about to see who might be listening before they dared so much as say there was a drought ... for someone might suppose they were blaming the drought on the Chief.'
Opponents were incarcerated, shot or put in work-camps. Books were gleefully burned and the media turned into mere propaganda.

The fascist State here, however, is torn asunder from within (personal infighting, power cliques, brutal murders) and from without (those people who without fear of their lives continued to fight for freedom, democracy and tolerance).
The main character in this book, a courageous editor of a newspaper, should be an example for today's newsmen, who are completely gagged by the powerful and paralyzed by autocensure.

Sinclair Lewis is also not blind for general human weaknesses: permanent insatisfaction, envy, following of prophets 'who had felt called upon to stir up the masses to save the world and save it in the prophet's own way', or falling for 'men of superior cunning, of slyer foxiness than slower-witted men, however worthy.'

This book is a tremendous achievement and still very actual.
A must read.

This novel seems better plotted than other Lewis books, including Main Street, Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, and Arrowsmith. Also, in comparison to these other novels, Lewis spends more time developing characters other than the protagonist (in this novel the protagonist being Doremus Jessup, a newpaper editor). Buzz Windrip, the fascist Senator who wins the 1936 presidential election; Windrip's Secretary of State Lee Sarason; and Shad Ledue, Doremus Jessup's handyman, all seem more fully fleshed out than characters of similar status in Lewis's earlier novels.

Readers interested in twentieth-century American politics will find this novel very entertaining. Buzz Windrip's political platform, which promises to establish limits on personal wealth (particularly that of African-Americans), to enact governmental control of "big money," and to limit the power of labor unions, appeals to the public in the same contradictory way as Bill Clinton's 1992 platform, which called for both tax cuts and increased government spending. (And in the same fashion as a conservative Republican platform that calls for less government influence over private lives but, at the same time, more laws to protect and uphold "middle-class family values.")

As a fan of Lewis's more light-hearted satire, as seen in Babbitt, I found the darkness of this novel difficult to take. The only parts that made me smile were the quotations from Buzz Windrip's campaign autobiography, Zero Hour, that appeared at the beginning of several chapters. But how can you make funny the takeover of America by humorless, bloodthirsty fascists, who hope to annihilate all opposition to Buzz Windrip and his plans to control every cent that is spent, every idea that is thought, and every word that is spoken?

On the whole, this novel isn't Lewis at his best. However, it isn't a disappointing novel, and anyone who likes to watch political talk shows or read about politics and politicians should find it worth their time.

As a novel, especially on with Lewis's talents, it falls short of being great. But since it was intended as a piece of biting satire, it doesn't have to be great.

I decided to read it because of the present administration. I've known for years the topic of the book but just didn't make room for it in my reading schedule. It is haunting, but not so much for the current administration.

It is still possible for parts of the events of the novel to happen in this country. In a republic such as ours, we get the government that the most afraid deserve. If enough people get afraid enough, we could have a form of dictatorial leadership sprout here.

Still, what I found most eerie was his description of the oppression and how the oppression was turned into a machine. This book was published in 1935, so it was written during the time that Hitler was making his initial changes to Germany. What Lewis wrote was amazingly close to what happened there. This means that Lewis had a preternatural grasp of the human mob mentality and that he could apply it to Germany with the scant material available at the time. In that respect, the novel often made me nauseous.

The novel is funny, wry, frightening, and more human than I expected. I also find it very important that the novel ends in the way it does--for those who would rather not know in advance, I will refrain from saying how. I would recommend it to just about anyone.

"It Can't Happen Here" is Sinclair Lewis' precient tale of an oafish, charismatic leader taking over the United States and instituting a facist mode of government. Grim as the subject of this book may be, you can rest assured that democracy in this counrty is not being replaced by a religeo-facist mode of government. You can rest assured that we have fair elections in which the governors of Florida and New Mexico do not illegally disenfranchise Black and Hispanic voters. You can rest assured that the owner of a voting machine company in Ohio does not contribute money to the ruling party and vow to deliver his state's electoral votes to the ruling party's candidate. And you can rest assured that his company's voting machines are not closed systems with no method of verification.

You can rest assured that the ruling party does not send paid operatives into a contested state during an election to intimidate vote counters. You can rest assured that a terrorist mastermind whose family has decades of business relationships with the ruling party leader's family will not somehow find a way to lead a cataclysmic attack on New York and you can definitely rest assured that the ruling party won't succeed in lying and covering up their own failure and complicity in this event.

You can rest assured that the ruling party won't use terrorism as a pretext to erode our civil liberties and give itself absolute power. You can rest assured that the ruling party will not officially sanction torture in places like Guantanamo, Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in the numerous countries to which it sends its political prisoners for interrogation.

Most importantly you can rest assured that the ruling party is sane and objective. You can rest assured that it listens to the world's scientists who overwhelmingly agree that we are on the brink of an irreversible environmental cataclysm. You can rest assured that it listens to its generals when they state that more troops are required to successfully govern an occupied country. You can rest assured that they listen to their economists and security experts when they request urgent attention to an issue of grave importance even if it does not conform to the ruling party's ideology.

You can rest assured that we are not living in a nation where the President's top political adviser would expose a patriotic member of the intelligence community to get revenge against her husband, and we do not live in a country where this person would get away with such a crime through continuous lies and obfuscations.

We do not live in a nation where the unelected, illegally installed fascist regime would destroy the middle class, and wage war on the poor in order to further bloat the already porcine class of billionaires with yet more tax cuts. We do not live in a religious theocracy in which the highest courts are run by fundamentalists who want to interpret every law according to their personal faith. And we do not live in a nation in which the mass media and government are owned by corporations that bombard us with lies and brainwashing on a minute-by-minute basis.

So when you read "It Can't Happen Here", remember that this is just a fictional "what if" book written in the thirties and is in no way suggestive of our present reality.