It Can't Happen Here

Imagine if a sneaky politician named Buzz Windrip promises everyone free money and jobs when times are tough, wins to be president, but then turns America into a mean dictatorship where he puts bad guys in jail for disagreeing, takes over newspapers, and makes everyone salute his flag. A brave newspaper man named Doremus in a small Vermont town fights back secretly with friends, even when it's super dangerous and his family gets hurt, to show that bad rulers can happen anywhere if people don't watch out.

Sinclair Lewis's 'It Can't Happen Here' (1935) depicts a chilling alternate history where charismatic demagogue Berzelius 'Buzz' Windrip campaigns on populist promises during the Great Depression, wins the presidency, and swiftly dismantles American democracy. Installing a fascist regime called the Corpo state, Windrip allies with corporate elites, militarizes society through the Minute Men militia, suppresses dissent via propaganda, concentration camps, and martial law, while his regime enforces 'M.M.' loyalty oaths and erodes civil liberties. Protagonist Doremus Jessup, a liberal newspaper editor in Fort Beulah, Vermont, initially observes the rise with alarm, then engages in underground resistance after his paper is seized and his family threatened. As the Corpo tyranny intensifies, Jessup joins a nascent guerrilla network, distributing samizdat newsletters and aiding refugees, but faces betrayal, arrest, torture, and the execution of comrades. Lewis masterfully satirizes American complacency, media complicity, and the seductive appeal of authoritarianism disguised as patriotism, culminating in Jessup's defiant endurance in a labor camp. The novel ends on a somber note of flickering resistance, warning that fascism can infiltrate even the most democratic societies through apathy and division.