It Can't Happen Here

By: Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

First published in 1935, when Americans were still largely oblivious to the rise of Hitler in Europe, this prescient novel tells a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and offers an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.

Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly 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.

©1935 Sinclair Lewis. © renewed 1963 by Michael Lewis (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Needed in the Age of Trump

Lots of insights into how fascism would look in the US. even though it was written 80 years ago, much rings scarily true today. As a novel it us a bit rambling. could cut out a third of it without losing its punch. The narrator is quite good.

Scary and Relevant with Politics Today

A big fan of Grover Gardner's reading style I felt he made the story lighter than it might otherwise have been. A satisfying listen all the way through.

The story itself has numerous parallels to modern day politics which some readers might find a bit depressing. My one criticism would be that the ending didn't feel very well thought out it ended a bit abruptly with no definitive resolution.

First, we'll go after the media

Then make sure the schools and scientists can state the pro country purpose of every lesson that's taught or experiment that's done.
And if we still don't like the outcome, we'll get rid of the lousy elite and replace them with good, hard-working Americans.

A sobering reminder of the fragility of freedom

it's hard to listen to this story and not see how our social and political culture has learned so little from the mistakes of the past, especially with the events of the 2020 American election. the paradox of freedom is that to obtain it without any restraint means taking freedom away from others, and to turn q blind eye to any facts and logic incompatible with your desires. a wise person understands and accepts their limits, while a tyrant has none

it came out almost 90 years ago. While technology has grown a lot, and I like to think people also have a little, we still have a lot of work to do to prevent despotism or fascism from taking root here

Must read

This is a must read in today's America. It was fascinating, and hard to hit stop.

As Relevant as Everyone Says it is

I read this because articles keep bringing it up as life these days imitating art. What they say really is true! Our current world is a danger. See how it can all come apart in this hugely prescient story. #Dark #Provocative #Depressing #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Hope It Stays Fictional

It was written some time ago. Yet its fictional story doesn’t feel impossible or even not probable. That is what is most concerning to me. But hopefully fiction stays fiction.

Eerie parallels to Trump's America

Lewis must have had a crystal ball gazing ahead at America 2016-2020. This cautionary tale is one we must seriously consider as we try to navigate the deliberate chaos and self-serving narcissism of our first legitimate autocratic president, whom history will condemn as the worst and most contemptuous of the rule of law and the executive's presumed oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. We are being sorely tested, but unlike Jessup's 1935 America, the center still holds. This is a necessary and uncomfortable book that should be taught in every high school English class. Everyone should have a copy to remember how delicate democracy truly can be.

prescient

fascinating how little has changed since then and how much has come true for today

Still current 80 years later

Prescient insight into the vulnerabilities America has fro a demagogue and how simple values of free speech powered by dogged courage eventually rights the ship