It Can't Happen Here

The only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here is an alarming, eerily timeless work. The Chicago Tribune descibed the book as "written at a white heat," for Lewis was outraged as he created it, tormented by Hitler's aggression, the murderous events in Franco's Spain, and nationalism rising in America. This book remains a warning about the fragility of democarcy, juxtaposing hilarious satires with a blow-by-blow description of a president saving the country from welfare cheaters, sex, crime, and a liberal press by becoming a dictator. Military spokeman General Edgeways and Republican Party activist Mrs. Adelaide Tarr Gimmiitch sound as fresh as a CNN broadcast, and the events - from Supreme Court nominations to blasts at the media - appear totally contemporary. A man ahead of his time, Sinclair Lewis profoundly understood the American character and ripped away smug platitudes to give readers truth. In 1935, the Springfield Republican called It Can't Happen Here "a message to thinking Americans." Thinking Americans still need to hear it.