From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

It Can't Happen Here

Sinclair Lewis

Start date: February 15, 2020

Finish date: March 1, 2020

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Discussion leader: Gertie

Why we're reading this: Read anytime, discussion opens March 1st. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It is 1936. America has…more
[close] Read anytime, discussion opens March 1st. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It is 1936. America has just elected Berzelius Windrip to the presidency-and his fascist policies turn the U.S. into a totalitarian state.

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What Members Thought

Jul 29, 2007 Jace rated it liked it

First Opinion: Eh, the story of a fascist takeover of an idyllic rural Vermont town. Boring. But I'm glad I gave it a chance...

This book starts off slowly with loads of exposition into the daily lives and histories of a myriad of residents of Fort Beulah, VT. It chugged along at such a pace that I feared it was shaping up to be another The Plot Against America and almost put it down. But because it was written by Sinclair Lewis and had received some degree of acclaim, I kept plodding through. In First Opinion: Eh, the story of a fascist takeover of an idyllic rural Vermont town. Boring. But I'm glad I gave it a chance...

This book starts off slowly with loads of exposition into the daily lives and histories of a myriad of residents of Fort Beulah, VT. It chugged along at such a pace that I feared it was shaping up to be another The Plot Against America and almost put it down. But because it was written by Sinclair Lewis and had received some degree of acclaim, I kept plodding through. In the nick of time, Lewis finally introduces Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, the progressive/populist (though racist, misogynist, and anti-semitic) U.S. Senator who is challenging Franklin Roosevelt for the 1936 Democratic presidential nomination. Windrip's main platform issue is the radical redistribution of wealth, promising $5,000 annual salary to each American family, regardless of occupation. Windrip is able to rouse up the neglected, forgotten, disharted rabble, winning the nomination and sweeping the November election.

I won't give too much away, but Windrip's private army of hired thugs quickly institutes a national lockdown, concentration camps spring up across the country, and dissidents are whisked away. One aspect of this book that I really liked was that the author fleshed out the detailed mechanics of fascist rule, down to the nitty-gritty dissolution of individual states and the installation of regional and district "commissioners".

As I interpreted it, the theme of the novel is that no political party or ideology has a monopoly on totalitarianism. Regardless of noble intentions, the quashing of freedom and the suffocation of dissent will always lead to fascism, no matter which party holds the reins. Sinclair sums it up about 20 pages from the end of the book, when he says of his protagonist, Doremus Jessup, that:

"He was afraid that the world struggle today was not of Communism against Fascism, but of tolerance against the bigotry that was preached equally by Communism and Fascism. But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word "Fascism" and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty. For they were thieves not only of wages but of honor. To their purpose they could quote not only Scripture but Jefferson" ...more

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Apr 05, 2017 Jane rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, classics

Meh.
I enjoyed Babbit and Elmer Gantry, but I found this book to be just so-so. It was promising in the beginning, but the vast mid-section was drawn out and dull.
I would guess that the 3.8 rating for this book spiked quite a bit when it was read by people looking for more reasons to hate Trump. (Don't jump on me, I think there are sufficient reasons to dislike the man.) And Buzz does bear more than passing resemblance to the Donald in the early part of the book.
...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Dave Schumaker rated it liked it

I finally decided to read this after hearing so much about it over the last 4 years.

One thing that I found fascinating was how this was written in 1935 — before the horrors of fascist governments and World War II.

It’s an interesting story on how (easily?) fascism could infect our own government here in the USA and there are some interesting parallels with today’s GOP (especially in light of their behavior after the 2020 presidential election).

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