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It Can't Happen Here ((REV)05) by Lewis, Sinclair [Mass Market Paperback (2005)]
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May 28, 2025
Totalitarianism in interwar America.
Lewis appears to have discerned Hitler’s trajectory before history fully revealed it, presenting it instead as a cautionary drama played out upon the American political—economic, social, and otherwise—stage.
Astute, though fortunately not prophetic (at least as far as the American context is concerned, for Germany did, of course, follow precisely such a path), this novel explores the rise to power of the archetypal interwar demagogue, offering a veiled but incisive critique of democracy itself. What follows, Europe would come to know in its most brutal and unambiguous form through Hitler’s ascent.
The parallels are unmistakable, and Lewis’s biting irony—verging at times on outright sarcasm—is nothing short of delightful. The masses follow the populist who promises prosperity for all, and we witness the gradual, almost imperceptible (or glaringly obvious, for readers aware of what befell Germany after 1934) shift: first the erosion of democratic pretence, then, more chillingly, of reason itself.
As ever, a few do resist—and always shall. Some with more success than others. Some are imprisoned, others perish after travesties of justice, until the narrative culminates in an awkward, muted ending—an ending that, in my view, deprives the work of its fifth star.
Exceptional on the whole, particularly when one considers the historical moment of its writing—the first edition appeared, if memory serves, in 1935.
Lewis appears to have discerned Hitler’s trajectory before history fully revealed it, presenting it instead as a cautionary drama played out upon the American political—economic, social, and otherwise—stage.
Astute, though fortunately not prophetic (at least as far as the American context is concerned, for Germany did, of course, follow precisely such a path), this novel explores the rise to power of the archetypal interwar demagogue, offering a veiled but incisive critique of democracy itself. What follows, Europe would come to know in its most brutal and unambiguous form through Hitler’s ascent.
The parallels are unmistakable, and Lewis’s biting irony—verging at times on outright sarcasm—is nothing short of delightful. The masses follow the populist who promises prosperity for all, and we witness the gradual, almost imperceptible (or glaringly obvious, for readers aware of what befell Germany after 1934) shift: first the erosion of democratic pretence, then, more chillingly, of reason itself.
As ever, a few do resist—and always shall. Some with more success than others. Some are imprisoned, others perish after travesties of justice, until the narrative culminates in an awkward, muted ending—an ending that, in my view, deprives the work of its fifth star.
Exceptional on the whole, particularly when one considers the historical moment of its writing—the first edition appeared, if memory serves, in 1935.
Displaying 1 of 1 review