This book’s ironic title indicates the “average American’s” complacency towards political concerns – a theme as relevant today as it was during the Great Depression. This book, written at the height of the Depression in 1935, imagines what would happen if a populist/fascist won the presidential election of 1936. Fascism was already taking root in Italy and Germany, and it was on the rise in America (primarily through Senator Huey Long, as the afterword explains). In financial distress, the American masses could easily be fooled into granting a national income that did not require work and into curbing freedoms like that of the press and that of speech in favor of promised prosperity. To those who glibly respond to this situation, “But it can’t happen here,” Lewis responds in this novel: “Oh yes, it can!”
In this book, the “Minute Men” (or simply “M.M.”) take on the role of enforcers of a dictatorial president. The new president quickly dissolves Congress and imposes authoritarian rule. Freedoms are curbed. The protagonist – a journalist named Doremus Jessup – realizes his complicity in this outcome. His previous complacency helped great American democracy to decay.
Obvious modern parallels presciently abound, and they can indict both sides of the current political divide. Although Lewis’ targets in this book were on the populist right, he was no wild leftist in his private life outside of this book. Discussions with journalists expelled from European fascist countries inspired this unnervingly realistic tale. His overarching point is not an uncritical embrace of liberalism but rather is a reawakening of the populous to “liberal” democratic principles.
Fortunately, the election of 1936 swayed FDR’s way, and the battles of World War II alerted the American public to the virtues of democracy. Sadly, internment camps did once dwell upon American soil, though not to the depraved degree exhibited in this novel. Ethnic, ideological, and economic rivalries, depicted here as prevalent in Lewis’ day, still can upend social stability. People still look towards government strongmen for economic security. Yes, it still can happen here.
These frighteningly present-day themes make this book a modern classic. They originally made this book Lewis’ best work of the second half of his career. This tale entertained and enlightened readers in the 1930s and can do the same to readers today. I could easily imagine this work being read today by a class in government in public high schools. Interestingly, Lewis concludes this work not by a restoration of democracy but by the liberty-filled triumph of the individual, despite bad government. Perhaps more eyes and ears today should absorb this message.
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Why, where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!Highlighted by 1,538 Kindle readers- The Executive has got to have a freer hand and be able to move quick in an emergency, and not be tied down by a lot of dumb shyster-lawyer congressmen taking months to shoot off their mouths in debates.Highlighted by 1,154 Kindle readers
- They took it, too, like Napoleon’s soldiers. And they had the Jews and the Negroes to look down on, more and more. The M.M.’s saw to that. Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.Highlighted by 538 Kindle readers
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The Worst.
This is by far the very worst book I have ever tried to read. Boring boring boring! The whole page devoted to a list of a run full of objects… why!?! Don’t waste your time try the Audible, it’s less unbearable.
Top reviews from other countries
Clinton Millett
This book sort of predicts what is going on in the US these days. Written in 1935.
Reviewed in Canada on August 17, 2023
Aqila Babu Abdullah
Please don't buy from this seller
Reviewed in India on October 1, 2020Carlo Ungaro
Sinclair Lewis: "It Can't Happen Here"
Reviewed in Italy on May 7, 2017