Rating: 
Summary: an overblown look at what can indeed happen here...
Review: "It Can't Happen Here" is an interesting yet totally overcooked fable about America in the 1930s when it gets overtaken by an ultra nationalistic dictator. Clearly Sinclair Lewis was making a statement about the times, and no doubt he was chastized for being so brazen and, perhaps, seemingly "un-American". So he deserves kudos for bravery. Unfortunately much of the book is unreadable, being nothing more than hysterical rants.
However one cannot help but wonder whether such anarchy come to America? Of course the answer is 'yes'. So on that note the book should be read. Or better still, I hope someone updates it, smoothes it out, and makes a film adaptation.
Bottom line: an important socio-political statement of 1930s America which is still valid in the 21st century. Too bad it's not well-written.
Rating: 
Summary: American writer's fiction anticipates the reality
Review: "It Can't Happen Here" stands alone amongst Sinclair Lewis's later novels as measuring up to his earlier works like "Main Street" and "Arrowsmith". While it is not in the same league as those earlier works, it at least brought out the fire that was lacking in most of his later works."It Can't Happen Here" chronicles the rise of an American dictator. Lewis intended this work not as a real life account of how someone might subject the American people to his will but as a warning to America to be on guard. When the book was published in 1935, several European countries had already succombed to the threat of dictatorship. In at least one of these countries (Germany), the dictator was welcomed in by a majority of the people. Lewis really didn't see this as the threat facing the United States, that the American people would welcome in a dictator, but that the American people would grow complacent and be less vigilant against the encroachment of their freedoms by an overweening government. The weakness in "It Can't Happen Here" is that Lewis makes the assault by Senator Windrip too naked. The complacency that Lewis was railing against would have very likely been blown away by the maneuvers of Windrip. It would have been better had Lewis used the slow erosion of freedom as his basis for dictatorial government, kind of like what Americans are facing today under the nanny-state. It is pretty obvious in hindsight that Lewis's model for Windrip was Louisiana Senator Huey Long. President Franklin Roosevelt considered Long to be the most dangerous man in America. I would think that Long probably would have been far more subtle in his actions than the caricature that his Buzz Windrip.
Rating:
Summary: A Weak Story but an Important Message
Review: "It Can't Happen Here" stands alone amongst Sinclair Lewis's later novels as measuring up to his earlier works like "Main Street" and "Arrowsmith". While it is not in the same league as those earlier works, it at least brought out the fire that was lacking in most of his later works. "It Can't Happen Here" chronicles the rise of an American dictator. Lewis intended this work not as a real life account of how someone might subject the American people to his will but as a warning to America to be on guard. When the book was published in 1935, several European countries had already succombed to the threat of dictatorship. In at least one of these countries (Germany), the dictator was welcomed in by a majority of the people. Lewis really didn't see this as the threat facing the United States, that the American people would welcome in a dictator, but that the American people would grow complacent and be less vigilant against the encroachment of their freedoms by an overweening government. The weakness in "It Can't Happen Here" is that Lewis makes the assault by Senator Windrip too naked. The complacency that Lewis was railing against would have very likely been blown away by the maneuvers of Windrip. It would have been better had Lewis used the slow erosion of freedom as his basis for dictatorial government, kind of like what Americans are facing today under the nanny-state. It is pretty obvious in hindsight that Lewis's model for Windrip was Louisiana Senator Huey Long. President Franklin Roosevelt considered Long to be the most dangerous man in America. I would think that Long probably would have been far more subtle in his actions than the caricature that his Buzz Windrip.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic because...
Review: ....it can happen here. Anyone who is aware of current news and political issues and history, will find this book, written in the 1930's, to be astonishing. I read this in high school, and remembered it years later when I was putting books on my web page. Why did I remember it? Sinclair Lewis wrote this long before the world became aware of what was going on in Nazi Germany. This illustrates the often ignored fact that we can tell what is going on around us, if only we listen to the signs and signals, and stop burying our heads in..oh, well, in books and the internet and TV shows. He takes the story to America, where people's response to what's going on in the world is "It Can't Happen Here" (not that any of us would say that these days...). Anything that Can't Happen Here, then, isn't our problem. Until, of course, it happens here... This is a good book to read if you like messages in your fiction - (did you enjoy reading "The Lottery?")
Rating:
Summary: Who is the villain?
Review: A fascinating look into the political climate of the 1930's. In some ways, Lewis missed the boat (genocide was too much even for him to contemplate), in others he gored oxes that a Y2K reader would find difficult to swallow (his most despicable villians have this apparently nasty habit of preferring same sex partners in group sex games). At times it is a chore to read (particularly at the start) as he spends more time in political commentary than in plot development, but the insight into the 1930's mind more than makes up for it. The particular targets of Lewis' contempt are just about everybody. Fascists, Communists, Liberals, Conservatives, Homosexuals, Jews, Blacks, Capitalists, Religious leaders and constitutional democracy all receive the point of his spear. But, probably the true value of this work, Lewis does identify as the one true villian as those in the middle, the people who take no extreme position, because it is their unwillingness to take action that allows the extreme elements to take over and make the evil happen. Overall, it's a great wake up call to anyone who thinks it can't happen here, and who feels someone else should take the risks. The reader must ignore the prejudices (particularly as to homosexuals and persons with religious beliefs) to get to the core message, and for some this may be more than they can do. Three stars because it is such a chore to read, I imagine most readers give up after about 100 pages as too much dreck to get to the story, but it's worth finishing.
Rating:
Summary: It can happen anywhere
Review: Good read of how any democracy can be subverted into a fascist state. Not just "thinking Americans", but all thinking people should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A frightening analysis of something that could happen.
Review: I found this book to be quite unnerving
because a lot of the problems it talks about
can be found in America today. No, we aren't through an economic depression, but I have observed that a lot of people would like the government to control more about their lives,
which has the potential to lead to a fascist dictatorship. I know, people might say "It can't happen here", just like in the book, but I think that Sinclair Lewis was right in the
idea that it could happen.
Rating:
Summary: A frightening analysis of something that could happen.
Review: I found this book to be quite unnervingbecause a lot of the problems it talks aboutcan be found in America today. No, we aren't through an economic depression, but I have observed that a lot of people would like the government to control more about their lives, which has the potential to lead to a fascist dictatorship. I know, people might say "It can't happen here", just like in the book, but I think that Sinclair Lewis was right in the idea that it could happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Right Now
Review: I often had to remind myself that this book was written in the mid 1930's. Much in the book is such an on-target description of what is happening today. The following thoughts of Doremus are eerily close to our present day leader.
"The one thing that most perplexed him was that there could be a dictator seemingly so different from the fervent Hitlers and gesticulating Fascists and Caesars with laurels round bald domes; a dictator with something of the earthy American sense of humor of a Mark Twain, a George Ade, a Will Rogers, and Artemus Ward. Windrip could be ever so funny about solemn jaw-drooping opponents, and about the best method of training what he called 'a Siamese flea hound.' Did that, puzzled Doremus, make him less or more dangerous?
Then he remembered the most cruel-mad of all pirates, Sir Henry Morgan, who had thought it ever so funny to sew a victim up in wet rawhide and watch it shrink in the sun."
Yes, it can happen here.
Rating:
Summary: American writer's fiction anticipates the reality
Review: I read this book as an adolescent after WWII and before the McCarthy era. I read all of Sinclair Lewis's books and I think that he accurately portrayed the citizen of the U.S. of his time. When the present administration (not really elected) began its repressive tactics, I remembered this book. I think that all Americans who think that there is no danger in allowing the president to acquire monumental powers and who are not afraid of an insidious takeover of our most basic rights
should read this book. Although the characters are exaggerated and very much Lewis's particular style, Lewis portrays clearly what can happen if we allow the government free rein. It's amazing that this book was written before Hitler; it predicts the take-overs of the modern dictators.
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