It Can't Happen HereIt Can't Happen Here

"Senator 'Buzz' Windrip, having used hot rhetoric, warm folksiness, and cold calculation to get into the White House, proceeds to bring in his own paramilitary storm troopers, seizes control of the government, and sets in motion his totalitarian program." *** "A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chilling realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press...." ***"Doremus Jessup, editor of a small New England newspaper, follows the rise to presidency of the United States of a fascist demagogue, Berzelius Windrip. Doremus and his friends publish an underground newspaper that tells the truth about what is happening. Doremus is imprisoned, escapes to Canada, and joins the underground movement which is headed by a man who had opposed Windrip in the election. The novel inveighs against some aspects of capitalism as well as fascism, and communists come in for their share of criticism also." Shapiro. Fiction for Youth. *** "An imaginary story of the possible changes in American government, and its effects on the individual."