{"id":2839,"date":"2021-03-30T19:33:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T00:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2024-05-10T20:25:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T01:25:14","slug":"tyranny-in-america-sinclair-lewis-imagined-it-in-his-cautionary-1935-tale-it-cant-happen-here-the-2007-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/tyranny-in-america-sinclair-lewis-imagined-it-in-his-cautionary-1935-tale-it-cant-happen-here-the-2007-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyranny in America? Sinclair Lewis’s cautionary 1935 novel It Can\u2019t Happen Here, the 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the Prometheus Awards Appreciation for Sinclair Lewis\u2019 novel It Can\u2019t Happen Here,<\/em> a 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t happen here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That common American comment, widely uttered in the 1920s and 1930s as the rest of the world seemingly was going crazy or descending into tyranny and barbarism, became the resonant title of Sinclair Lewis\u2019 cautionary 1935 novel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First published during the dark era of 1930s collectivism marked by the rise of fascism in Italy and Hitler\u2019s National Socialism in Germany, It Can\u2019t Happen Here\u00a0<\/em>offers a semi-satirical tale and timely warning about the potential rise of similar totalitarianism within the United States.<\/p>\n

The central character Berzelius \u201cBuzz\u201d Windrip is a demagogue who incites fear while promoting traditional patriotism and ends up elected U.S. President. Windrip takes complete control of the government by exploiting a ruthless paramilitary force, outlawing dissent, ending women\u2019s and minority rights and eliminating the influence of the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As in Lenin and Stalin\u2019s Communist U.S.S.R. and Europe\u2019s similarly extreme national-socialist dictatorships, those accused of crimes against the government appear in kangaroo courts presided over by military judges.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSuch efforts to wipe out basic libertarian rights are opposed by a journalist as part of a liberal rebellion that sets up a New Underground, named after the slavery era\u2019s Underground Railroad, that distributes anti-Windrip leaflets and helps dissidents escape to Canada. But when the journalists\u2019 efforts are discovered, he\u2019s sent to a concentration camp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When Windrip goes to far, even ordering mass conscription of young American men (including many of his own supporters) to invade Mexico, a civil war is sparked, leading to a rival seizing power and Windrip\u2019s forced exile.<\/p>\n

When the book was published, reviewers found parallels with Louisiana populist politician Huey Long, who was building a nationwide \u201cShare Our Wealth\u201d organization that promises each citizen a handout of $5,000\/year (uncomfortably similar to some economic nostrums peddled by today\u2019s Left and Right populists and progressives).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Today, most Americans no longer learn about or remember Long, but other demagogues have risen (and fallen) over the decades along with various authoritarian trends and movements.<\/p>\n

Beyond the very real and recurrent threat of authoritarian populism in eras of fear and change, Lewis\u2019 cautionary novel remains more broadly relevant in the 21st<\/sup>century as a warning to be vigilant against any threats from demagogues or mobs from the Left or Right that could undermine the freedom and basic respect for one another\u2019s rights to live and let live that Americans have come to cherish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Note: Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was the first American writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded \u201cfor his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great libertarian journalist H.L. Mencken, a contemporary literary critic, praised Lewis, writing \u201c(If) there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade… it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sinclair Lewis in 1930 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lewis wrote 24 novels between 1912 and 1951, along with many short stories, plays, poems and a screenplay. Several of his novels were made into movies.<\/p>\n

Besides\u00a0It Can\u2019t Happen Here,\u00a0<\/i>Lewis is best remembered for his novels\u00a0Arrowsmith, Babbit, Dodsworth, Elmer Gantry\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Main Street.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

* Coming up soon on the Prometheus Blog:\u00a0Vernor Vinge\u2019s story \u201cTrue Names,\u201d the other 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* See related\u00a0 introductory essay<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 about the LFS\u2019 40th<\/sup>anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards\u2019 four-decade history.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Prometheus winners:<\/strong>\u00a0For a full list of winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the recently enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 on the LFS website, which has added convenient links to all published Appreciations of past winners as they are published.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 an essay in the June 2020 issue of the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists believe cultural change is as (or more) vital as political change in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the Prometheus Awards Appreciation for Sinclair Lewis\u2019 novel It Can\u2019t Happen Here, a 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction. By Michael Grossberg \u201cIt can\u2019t happen here.\u201d That common American comment, widely uttered in the 1920s and 1930s as the rest of the world seemingly was going crazy or descending … Continue reading Tyranny in America? Sinclair Lewis’s cautionary 1935 novel It Can\u2019t Happen Here, the 2007 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,2353,160,8],"tags":[753,968,967,969,816,971,970,966,280,200],"class_list":["post-2839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-book-reviews","category-hall-of-fame","category-review","tag-fascism","tag-huey-long","tag-it-cant-happen-here","tag-left","tag-lenin","tag-populism","tag-right","tag-sinclair-lewis","tag-socialism","tag-stalin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-JN","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7499,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/7499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}