[Hac-announce] October Book Discussion: "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

[Kevin Gough or Paula Jones]

Our book for October is It Can't Happen Here by Nobel Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis. The discussion will take place Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 2 pm in the library of the Unitarian Society of New Haven at 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.                 





                           
This is the book that likely gave rise to the supposed famous Lewis (mis)quote “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” (The quote most likely arose from a review of the book by Harrison Evans Salisbury: "Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can't Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling 'The Star Spangled Banner.'")

>From Wikipedia:
It Can't Happen Here…a semi-satirical 1935 political novel…[p]ublished during the rise of fascism in Europe, …describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a populist United States Senator who 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 the 1936 election when he was assassinated in 1935 just prior to the novel's publication.

(It will be interesting to also discuss similarities with Frank Capra’s classic film Meet John Doe.)
 
The New Yorker opines "Not only Lewis's most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in this country."                  
                 
                                
                
The book is readily available in numerous libraries around the state.                         

              
              
Refreshments will be served. 






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cthumanist.org/pipermail/hac-announce/attachments/20150920/dbcc1d76/attachment.html>