But the occasion was essentially serious. All of America was serious now, after the seven years of depression since It was just long enough after the Great War of for the young people who had been born in to be ready to go to college.
During the presidential election of , Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, observes with dismay that many of the people he knows support the candidacy Berzelius Windrip. When Windrip wins, he gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court, and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
That will never happen here, we assume. But the unimaginable does happen here in three daring counterfactual novels by Jack London, Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth. Not where or how it was supposed to happen. For the usual suspects, alien ideologues, are nowhere to be seen.
Instead, insiders make the revolution. Insiders do it. In "The Iron Heel", London imagines a proto-fascist Oligarchy that precipitates its overthrow of the elected government by throwing a bomb in the House of Representatives in These catastrophes accompany a century of war and economic dislocation that are in the history books and help to make the timing of right wing takeovers plausible. Orwell praised The Iron Heel's political prescience, but was less sure of its literary strengths.
Nonetheless, the novel is a formidable work of imagination that has been called America's "". All three novels underscore the historical strengths of native right wing movements. Fascism did not happen here, but these novels powerfully evoke its dark potential in American life. What could happen to America under a dictator. Sinclair Lewis's chilling bestseller is the story of Buzz Windrip, 'Professional Common Man', who promises poor, angry voters that he will make America proud and prosperous once more, but takes the country down a far darker path.
As the new regime slides into authoritarianism, newspaper editor Doremus Jessup can't believe it will last - but is he right? This cautionary tale of liberal complacency in the face of populist tyranny shows it really can happen here.
Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. It follows a small town newspaper editor, Doremus Jessup, as he watches his country come out of economic depression only to embrace a smoke-and-mirrors presidential candidate who wraps himself in patriotic zeal. This charismatic demagogue and his cronies amass power and wealth as the rest of the population watches its rights and freedoms disappear.
There is censorship, the random violence of an unchecked paramilitary force, and the emergence of concentration camps. Jews, foreigners, and intellectuals are singled out for especially brutal treatment.
Universities are taken over and books are burned. As he watches the devastating toll exacted from his friends and family, the once easygoing Jessup is swept into an underground resistance movement in which he must ignore his moral compass. A revolution is launched, but the outcome is uncertain.
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Great book, It Cant Happen Here pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Work Of Art by Sinclair Lewis. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Kingsblood Royal by Sinclair Lewis.
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