{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260424T163327Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/045121658X?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"045121658X","authors":["Sinclair Lewis","Michael Meyer"],"book_id":"9780451216588","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/it-can-t-happen-here-045121658X","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780451216588.jpg?v=20260424T163327Z%3A2026-04-24T16%3A33%3A27Z","description":"“The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s authoritarian appeal.”—Salon 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. 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