August Book Club

Calendar

When:

August 18, 2017 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

2017-08-18T19:00:00-04:00

2017-08-18T21:00:00-04:00

Where:

Home of Dennis and Ellen Higdon

Our next book will be It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.  Ellen and Dennis Higdon will be our hosts on August 18.  Please also bring suggestions for future months.

It Can’t Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935 political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis,^[1] and a 1936 play adapted from the novel by Lewis and John C. Moffitt. Published during the rise of fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a politician who defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and 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,^[2] who was preparing to run for president in the 1936 election when he was assassinated in 1935 just prior to the novel’s publication.