It Can't Happen Here: Sinclair Lewis (Penguin Modern Classics)

Lewis, Sinclair

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241310660 ISBN 13: 9780241310663

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2017

'An eerily prescient foreshadowing of current affairs' Guardian'Not only Lewis's most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in the United States' New YorkerA vain, outlandish, anti-immigrant, fearmongering demagogue runs for President of the United States - and wins. Sinclair Lewis's chilling 1935 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.

Review:

You can't read Lewis' novel today without flashes of Trumpian recognition (Slate)

An eerily prescient foreshadowing of current affairs (Guardian)

Eighty years later the novel feels frighteningly contemporary (Salon)

Not only Lewis's most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in the United States (New Yorker)

From the Back Cover:

A vain, outlandish, anti-immigrant, fearmongering demagogue runs for President of the United States - and wins. Sinclair Lewis's chilling 1935 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 Jessop 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.

'An eerily prescient foreshadowing of current affairs' Guardian

'Not only Lewis's most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in the United States' New Yorker