a book
It Can't Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis · 2005 · 416 pages
It Can’t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis’s 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 Hitler’s 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 Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.
With an Introduction by Michael Meyer
and an Afterword by Gary Scharnhorst
recommended by 5 people
sourced from public statements
Ryan Holiday
“Lewis's 1935 novel depicting a populist demagogue's rise parallels current events, demonstrating how fictional narratives illuminate historical and human truths.”↗
Michael McKean
“This book is phenomenally prescient. It should be read in tandem with Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here, with Thurber’s short story, “The Greatest Man in the World” as a palate cleanser.”↗
books like It Can't Happen Here
other books recommended by the same people who recommend this one
Eleanor Roosevelt: The Defining Years: Volume Two 1933-1938
Blanche Wiesen Cook
2 shared recommenders
Animal Farm: George Orwell (Macmillan Collector's Library)
George Orwell
2 shared recommenders
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
2 shared recommenders
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
2 shared recommenders
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
David J. Epstein
2 shared recommenders
Sell It Like Serhant: How to Sell More, Earn More, and Become the Ultimate Sales Machine
Ryan Serhant
2 shared recommenders
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Timothy Ferriss
2 shared recommenders
The Great Gatsby: Original Text
F. Scott Fitzgerald
2 shared recommenders
The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
Morgan Housel
2 shared recommenders
The War of Art
Steven Pressfield
2 shared recommenders