It Can’t Happen Here, a political novel by Sinclair Lewis first published in 1935, details the rise, consolidation, and partial collapse of an American fascist dictatorship. The book is told primarily from the perspective of Doremus Jessup, an owner-editor of a small-town Vermont newspaper and self-described middle-class liberal intellectual. Jessup is 60 years old at the start of the novel.
Jessup begins as a cynical but detached observer of politics but over the course of the novel becomes an active member of the resistance, paying heavy personal costs. The book describes how easy it would be for a charismatic, populist politician to rise to power during times of economic crisis and implement totalitarian rule in America, in contrast to many characters in the novel who argue that totalitarianism can’t happen in America. Lewis argues for a politically-engaged and informed population that can resist the empty promises of demagogues, as well as for establishment political and economic elites to be aware of how they might be creating the conditions that allow totalitarianism to flourish.
Where's Suzie Cream-Cheese when we need her?