It Cant Happen Here (Sinclair Lewis)

The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trumps authoritarian appeal.-SalonIt Cant Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewiss later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitlers aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press. Called a message to thinking Americans by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Cant Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as todays news. With an Introduction by Michael Meyer and an Afterword by Gary Scharnhorst