It Can't Happen Here
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It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical political novel by Sinclair Lewis published in 1935. It features newspaperman Doremus Jessup struggling against the fascist regime of President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip.
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[edit] Plot
Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic but power-hungry politician, is elected President of the United States on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness. Once in power, however, he becomes a dictator, outlawing dissent and putting his political enemies in concentration camps. As Windrip dismantles democracy, most Americans either support him wholeheartedly or reassure themselves that fascism cannot happen in America (hence the book's title).
One of the few who openly oppose Windrip's regime is journalist Doremus Jessup, who writes editorials decrying the state's abuses of power. Shad LeDue, head of the state police and Jessup's former employee, terrorizes Jessup, eventually putting him in a camp. He also goes after Jessup's family, attempting to seduce Jessup's daughter, Sissy. Eventually, however, Ledue falls out of favor with Windrip, who puts him in the same camp as Jessup. Against Jessup's protestations, the other prisoners gang up on Ledue and murder him.
While Jessup languishes in prison, Windrip's hold on power begins to weaken; the economic prosperity he promises has not materialized, and more and more people are fleeing to Canada to escape his government's brutality. Eventually, Windrip's lieutenants stage a coup and exile him to France. In the ensuing power vacuum, they fight among themselves for control, setting the stage for the regime's self-destruction.
With help from a sympathetic guard, Jessup escapes from the camp, rejoins his family, and goes to Canada to join a resistance movement.
[edit] In other media
In 1936, Lewis and John C. Moffitt wrote a stage version, also titled It Can't Happen Here,[1] which is still produced. The stage version premiered on October 27, 1936 in several U.S. cities simultaneously, in productions sponsored by the Federal Theater Project.
A 1968 television movie, Shadow on the Land (alternate title: United States: It Can't Happen Here) was produced by Screen Gems as a pilot for a series loosely based on this book. [2]
Inspired by the book, director–producer Kenneth Johnson wrote an adaptation titled Storm Warnings, in 1982. The script was presented to NBC, for production as a television mini-series, but the NBC executives rejected the initial version, claiming it was too "cerebral" for the average American viewer. To make the script more marketable, the American fascists were re-cast as man-eating extraterrestrials, taking the story into the realm of science fiction. The new, re-cast story was the mini-series V, which premiered on May 3, 1983.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ IBDB listing for It Can't Happen Here
- ^ IMDb listing for Shadow on the Land
- ^ Gross, Edward (Fall 2004), ""Visiting Hours" TV's Most Famous Alien Invasion Saga Comes Home To DVD" ([dead link]), CFQ Spotlite (1), http://www.whenmartindied.com/cfq.html
[edit] External links
- Book review
- It Can't Happen Here from Australian Project Gutenberg
- Public Enemy by Joe Keohane, Boston Globe, December 182005.
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