Zoom Program: Real Men Read – It Can’t Happen Here

Thursday, July 23, 2020
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

About the Book

It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis

It Can’t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis’s later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. 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 chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.

Called “a message to thinking Americans” by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today’s news.

About the Author

The son of a country doctor, Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Main Street (1920) was his first really successful novel, and his reputation was secured by the publication of Babbitt (1922). Lewis was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith (1925) but refused to accept the honor, saying the prize was meant to go to a novel that celebrated the wholesomeness of American life, something his books did not do. He did accept, however, when in 1930 he became the first American writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

About the Book Club

Real Men Read is an open forum book discussion covering non-fiction, historical and science fiction, memoirs, and current events titles. Our tradition in Real Men Read is to stick to books with long titles and sub-titles, even if it’s fiction. All are invited!

To have a book set aside for you contact Dave Anderson at 859-781-6166, x.13

If you’d like to attend the Zoom meeting, please email danderson@cc-pl.org for details.

Cold Spring Branch