"It Can't Happen Here". Sinclair Lewis.

[mucholderthandirt]

Out of curiosity, and a notion to check this book out (I read it many decades ago, remember nothing about it), I went to the library site to check it out. Out of eight copies, none are available. Wait time about four weeks.

Discuss as you please. Hopefully I'll remember to come back and see what you all think.

I will note that the first line of the description is:

“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.”—Salon

[marble falls]

1. 'It Can't Happen Here' is about MAGA, 'Babbitt' is about how a Trump is made.

[elocs]

2. America's sin was one of national pride, that "it can't happen here".

That it's only the lesser nations that fall to dictators and anarchy because we are too good and great for that to happen to us...until it does. We are not so smug anymore though because we were not vigilant enough, becoming complacent that our form of government and freedoms would always stand.

[Timeflyer]

3. Lewis learned about what was happening in 1930s Germany from his wife, journalist Dorothy Thompson.

Got intrigued about this book from a Smithsonian magazine article about the Depression era WPA relief program, the Federal Theatre Project, which produced a play based on the Sinclair Lewis novel, It Can’t Happen Here, 1935, about a fascist takeover of the United States, prompted me to read that book. Then I needed to find out about an amazing American woman, journalist and radio broadcaster, Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961). She was married to Lewis when he wrote his novel, and there’s no doubt his book reflects information about the situation in Germany that she provided from her on-the-ground reporting.
In Germany she personally interviewed Hitler early in 1932. Her depiction of him as a “little man” --”I bet he crooks his little finger when he drinks his tea,” and her exposure and criticism of Nazi anti-Semitic policies enraged Der Further. In 1934 the Gestapo officially expelled her from Germany. She framed the expulsion letter and hung it in her office.