It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935
political novel by American author
Sinclair Lewis. Published during the rise of
fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a populist
United States Senatorwho is elected to the
presidency after promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a
plutocratic/
totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of
Adolf Hitler and the
SS. The novel's plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup's opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle against it as part of a liberal rebellion. Reviewers at the time, and literary critics ever since, have emphasized the connection with Louisiana politician
Huey Long, who was preparing to run for president in 1936 elections when he was assassinated in 1935 just prior to the novel's appearance.
Plot summary[edit]
In 1936 Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician, wins election as
President of the United States on a
populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and promising each citizen $5,000 a year (approximately $90,000,
adjusted for inflation[1]). Portraying himself as a champion of traditional American values, Windrip easily defeats his opponents, Senator Walt Trowbridge and President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Though having previously foreshadowed some
authoritarian measures in order to reorganize the United States government, Windrip rapidly outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies in concentration camps, and trains and arms a
paramilitary force called the Minute Men, who terrorize citizens and enforce the policies of Windrip and his "corporatist" regime. One of his first acts as president is to eliminate the influence of the
United States Congress, which draws the ire of many citizens as well as the legislators themselves. The Minute Men respond to protests against Windrip's decisions harshly, attacking demonstrators with bayonets. In addition to these actions, Windrip's administration, known as the "Corpo" government, curtails women's and minority rights, and eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors. The government of these sectors is managed by "Corpo" authorities, usually prominent businessmen or Minute Men officers. Those accused of crimes against the government appear before
kangaroo courts presided over by "military judges". Despite these dictatorial (and "quasi-draconian") measures, a majority of Americans approve of them, seeing them as necessary though painful steps to restore American power. Others, those less enthusiastic about the prospect of
corporatism, reassure themselves that fascism cannot "happen here"; hence the novel's title.
Open opponents of Windrip, led by Senator Trowbridge, form an organization called the New Underground, helping dissidents escape to Canada in manners reminiscent of the
Underground Railroad and distributing anti-Windrip propaganda. One recruit to the New Underground is Doremus Jessup, the novel's protagonist, a traditional
liberal and an opponent of both Corpoism and communist theories, which Windrip's administration suppresses. Jessup's participation in the organization results in the publication of a periodical called
The Vermont Vigilance, in which he writes editorials decrying Windrip's abuses of power. Shad Ledue, the local district commissioner and Jessup's former hired man, resents his old employer and eventually discovers his actions, having him sent to a concentration camp. Ledue subsequently terrorizes Jessup's family and particularly his daughter Sissy, whom he unsuccessfully attempts to seduce. Sissy does, however, discover evidence of corrupt dealings on the part of Ledue, which she exposes to Francis Tasbrough, a one-time friend of Jessup and Ledue's superior in the administrative hierarchy. Tasbrough has Ledue imprisoned in the same camp as Jessup, where inmates he had sent there organize his murder. Jessup escapes - after a relatively brief incarceration - when his friends bribe one of the camp guards. He flees to Canada, where he rejoins the New Underground. He later serves the organization as a spy in the northeastern United States, passing along information and urging locals to resist Windrip.
In time, Windrip's hold on power weakens as the economic prosperity he promised does not materialize and increased numbers of disillusioned Americans, including Vice President Perley Beecroft, flee to Canada. He also angers his Secretary of State, Lee Sarason, who had served earlier as his chief political operative and adviser. Sarason and Windrip's other lieutenants, including General Dewey Haik, seize power and exile the president to France. Sarason succeeds Windrip, but his extravagant and relatively weak rule creates a power vacuum in which Haik and others vie for power. In a bloody putsch, Haik leads a party of military supporters into the White House, kills Sarason and his associates, and proclaims himself president. The two coups cause a slow erosion of Corpo power, and Haik's government desperately tries to arouse patriotism by launching an unjustified invasion of Mexico. After slandering Mexico in state-run newspapers, Haik orders a mass conscription of young American men for the invasion of that country, infuriating many who had until then been staunch Corpo loyalists. Riots and rebellions break out across the country, with many realizing that the Corpos have misled them.
General Emmanuel Coon, among Haik's senior officers, defects to the opposition with a large portion of his army, giving strength to the resistance movement. Though Haik remains in control of much of the country, civil war soon breaks out as the resistance tries to consolidate its grasp on the Midwest. The novel ends after the beginning of the conflict, with Jessup working as an agent for the New Underground in Corpo-occupied portions of southern Minnesota.
Reception[edit]
Poster for the stage adaptation of
It Can't Happen Here, October 27, 1936 at the Lafayette Theater as part of the
Detroit Federal Theater
Reviewers at the time of the book's publication, and literary critics ever since, have emphasized the connection with Louisiana politician
Huey Long, who was preparing to run for president in 1936. According to Boulard (1998), "the most chilling and uncanny treatment of Huey by a writer came with Sinclair Lewis's
It Can't Happen Here." Lewis portrayed a genuine American dictator on the Hitler model. Starting in 1936 the
WPA, a
New Deal agency,
performed the theatre version across the country. Lewis had the goal of hurting Long's chances in the 1936 election. Keith Perry argues that the key weakness of the novel is not that he decks out American politicians with sinister European touches, but that he finally conceives of fascism and totalitarianism in terms of traditional American political models rather than seeing them as introducing a new kind of society and a new kind of regime. Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-
Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people's desperation, but neither he nor his followers are in the grip of the kind of world-transforming ideology like Hitler's
National Socialism.
[5]
Adaptations[edit]
In 1936, Lewis and John C. Moffitt wrote a stage version, also titled
It Can't Happen Here, which is still produced. The stage version premiered on October 27, 1936 in 21 U.S. theatres in 17 states simultaneously, in productions sponsored by the
Federal Theater Project. A film version was in preparation at this time at
MGM, but studio head
Louis B. Mayer soon canceled the production to the publicly announced pleasure of the Nazi regime in Germany.
Will H. Hays, responsible for the enforcement of the
Motion Picture Production Code, had notified Mayer of potential problems in the German market.
[8]
Influence[edit]
Inspired by the book, director–producer
Kenneth Johnson wrote an adaptation titled
Storm Warnings in 1982. The script was presented to
NBC for production as a television
miniseries, but NBC executives rejected the initial version, claiming it was too cerebral for the average American viewer. To make the script more marketable, the American fascists were re-cast as man-eating
extraterrestrials, taking the story into the realm of
science fiction. The revised story became the miniseries
V, which premiered May 3, 1983.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Bibliography
- Boulard, Garry (1998). Huey Long invades New Orleans: the siege of a city, 1934–36.
- Flanagan, Hallie (1940). Arena, The Story of the Federal Theatre. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
- Lingeman, Richard R. (2005). Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street. St. Paul, Minn: Borealis Books. ISBN 978-0-87351-541-2.
- Perry, Keith (2004). The Kingfish in fiction: Huey P. Long and the modern American novel.
- Simpson, MJ. "Kenneth Johnson interview". MJSimpson.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
External links[edit]
