It Cant Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis
It Cant Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis
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It Can't Happen Here

Author: Sinclair Lewis

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 14 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/05/2016

Synopsis

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.

About Sinclair Lewis

Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), the son of a country doctor, was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. He attended Yale University, where he was editor of the literary magazine, and graduated in 1907. After a few of his stories had appeared in magazines and his first novel, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914), had been published, he was able to write full time. He was awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith (1925) but refused to accept the honor. However, he accepted the Nobel Prize awarded him in 1930. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

About Grover Gardner

Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on February 15, 2020

A friend of mine that was recently in London told me that all the bookshops there had Roth's The Plot Against America and It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Alarmist? Perhaps, but as I already said in my review of The Plot Against America, maybe not. In It Can't Happen Here, rather than Lindberg......more

Goodreads review by Rick on September 19, 2012

I have always thought that if fascism ever came to America it would come clothed in red, white, and blue, with patriotic songs, and quotations from founding fathers. It would be nationalistic. It would extol military endeavors and elevate soldiers to the level of heroes. It would handle the race que......more

Goodreads review by Manny on October 30, 2025

In 1935, Nobel-prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis published this novel, which describes a Fascist takeover of the US following the upcoming 1936 election. The takeover is similar to the one Hitler effected after coming to power in Germany two years earlier. The fictional American dictator, Buzz Win......more

Goodreads review by The Conspiracy is Capitalism on May 14, 2025

A Liberal thought-experiment? --2025 update: 1) Well, it's 2025. 2) Fiction is frustrating, especially when we want to read it politically. The author's own opinions are often not directly stated, so we are left with conflicting characters where there's often not a protagonist directly representing t......more

Quotes

“One of the most important books ever produced in this country.” New Yorker

“This audio version of the Sinclair Lewis classic keeps listeners riveted to Grover Gardner’s restrained yet powerful delivery. The 1935 novel, which predicts a dystopian future, is truly crafted for listening. Gardner is masterful at bringing listeners into the workings of protagonist Doremus Jessup’s worried mind.” AudioFile

“Written at white heat.” Chicago Tribune

“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.” Salon

“A message to thinking Americans.” Springfield Republican

“Lewis imagined the rise of a populist figure by the name of Buzz Windrip who rallies to defeat FDR in the 1936 election…Windrip loves big, passionate rallies and rails against the ‘lies of the mainstream press.’” Time

“A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy…It Can’t Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that’s as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.” Library Journal (starred review)

Awards

  • NPR Pick
  • Amazon.com Bestseller
  • Audible.com Bestseller
  • Time Magazine Pick
  • Washington Post Pick
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