History Literature / ItCantHappenHere

* DatedHistory: It was common to attack UsefulNotes/HueyLong as a fascist while he was alive, and It Can’t Happen Here’s TakeThat to him with [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Windrop]] was somewhat of the pinnacle of it. Since World War II, however, historians who’ve studied Long agree the fascist comparison doesn’t have any substance, and whatever Long faults, he wasn’t going to recreate the totalitarian, jingoist, and ethno-nationalist violence and oppression of Hitler and Mussolini as Windrop does.

* UnbuiltTrope: From a modern perspective, it can read as this to many later dystopian novels in which the heroes triumph against the oppressive regime and restore life as it was before, especially in how it predicted the problems with radicalism, [[HereWeGoAgain demagoguery]], and instability that would face many newly-democratic and/or ex-colonial nations in the latter half of the 20th century.

* BlackSheep: Both Doremus and his son Philip see each other as this, due to their opposing views.

** Several against Upton Sinclair, who is described as a supporter of Windrip and his later ambassador to the UK. Sinclair was a devoted socialist and FDR supporter, but quit the Socialist Party of America to run as a Democrat, and used populist tactics similar to Windrip during his campaign. Ironically, Sinclair's books were among those burned by the Nazis at their rallies.

* TakeThat: Several against Upton Sinclair, who is described as a supporter of Windrip and his later ambassador to the UK. Sinclair was a devoted socialist and FDR supporter, but quit the Socialist Party of America to run as a Democrat, and used populist tactics similar to Windrip during his campaign. Ironically, Sinclair's books were among those burned by the Nazis at their rallies.

** This also goes for Windrip's Secretary of State, Lee Sarason, just as he is about to [[spoiler:depose Windrip after two years of Presidency]].

* UngratefulBastard: Bishop Paul Peter Prang was indispensable in getting Windrip elected, persuading the twenty-seven million members of his "League of Forgotten Men" to vote for the man. Then, in the first week of his administration, rather than rewarding Prang for his help, Windrip throws this potential rival for power into an insane asylum, never to be seen again.

* SpiritualSuccessor: George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', published fourteen years after ''It Can't Happen Here''. Both depict formerly democratic nations that succumb to totalitarianism. Both novels feature protagonists who find salvation in their lovers, rebel against the government through the written word, and endure torture and incarceration.

* TakeThat: Several against Upton Sinclair, who is described as a supporter of Windrip.

* CivilWar: A large-scale resistance mounts after Haik takes power.

* CompositeCharacter: Windrip is heavily modeled on UsefulNotes/HueyLong, along with other Depression-era demagogues like Gerald Winrod and William Dudley Pelley.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: General and Resistance leader Emmanuel Coon.

** Back in Fort Beulah, the little favors and kindnesses Doremus did for Shad Ledue when he was working for him seem to have merely stoked his resentment even further.

''It Can't Happen Here'' is a speculative fiction novel written by Creator/SinclairLewis and published in 1935.

Adapted by Lewis himself into a 1936 stage play produced by the Federal Theatre Project. Also inspired the sci-fi series ''Series/{{V|1983}}''. Not to be confused with the [[Film/ItHappenedHere British alternate history film based on a similar premise]].

Lewis based this in part on the experiences of his wife, Dorothy Thompson, a journalist who'd been expelled from UsefulNotes/NaziGermany for writing articles critical of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Lewis used Thompson's research and personal experiences in Germany and UsefulNotes/FascistItaly to imagine how America might become a fascist state. Unfortunately, he [[CompositeCharacter had many American figures]] to draw upon as well, from UsefulNotes/HueyLong, who planned to challenge UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt's re-election on his "Share Our Wealth" platform, to fringe figures like Gerald Winrod,[[note]]a Kansas evangelist whose antisemitism and admiration for Hitler earned him the nickname "the Jayhawk Nazi"[[/note]] Gerald L.K. Smith,[[note]]an evangelist who went from Long's chief adviser to, after Long's death, an antisemitic demagogue[[/note]] and William Dudley Pelley.[[note]]the leader of the paramilitary "Silver Legion of America," better-known as the Silver Shirts[[/note]] A bestseller due to its unnerving contemporary resonance, the novel remains one of Lewis's best-known works.

Based in part on the experiences of Lewis's wife, Dorothy Thompson, a journalist who was expelled from UsefulNotes/NaziGermany for writing articles critical of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Lewis used Thompson's research and personal experiences in Germany and UsefulNotes/FascistItaly to imagine how America might become a fascist state. Unfortunately, he [[CompositeCharacter had many American figures]] to draw upon as well, from UsefulNotes/HueyLong, who planned to challenge UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt's reelection on his "Share Our Wealth" platform, to fringe figures like Gerald Winrod,[[note]]a Kansas evangelist whose antisemitism and admiration for Hitler earned him the nickname "the Jayhawk Nazi"[[/note]] Gerald L.K. Smith,[[note]]an evangelist who went from Long's chief adviser to, after Long's death, an antisemitic demagogue[[/note]] and William Dudley Pelley.[[note]]the leader of the paramilitary "Silver Legion of America," better-known as the Silver Shirts[[/note]] A bestseller due to its unnerving contemporary resonance, the novel remains one of Lewis's best-known works.

In the novel, the United States succumbs to a totalitarian government headed by President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic politician who wins over the voters through populism and empty promises. With his cadre of advisors and brutal private militia of Minute Men (M.M.s), Windrip oversees a new era of poverty, corruption, oppression, and fear; women and minorities are stripped of their rights, all dissent is outlawed, and those who displease the government are imprisoned in concentration camps or killed.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Some of Windrip's diplomatic appointments are hinted at being this.

-->They were the idealists of Corpoism, and there were plenty of them, along with the bullies and swindlers; they were the men and women who, in 1935 and 1936, had turned to Windrip & Co., not as perfect, but as the most probably saviors of the country from, on one hand, domination by Moscow and, on the other hand, the slack indolence, the lack of decent pride of half the American youth ... They were proud of new Corpo roads, hospitals, television stations, aeroplace lines; they were touched by processions of the Corpo Youth, whose faced were exalted with pride in the myths of Corpo heroism and clean Spartan strength and the semi-divinity of the all-protecting Father, President Windrip.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Bishop Prang compared to Father Coughlin. Whereas Prang does end up objecting to the brutality of the Windrip regime, Coughlin was a vicious and unapologetic antisemite and fascist, to the point where a large number of American bishops, the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, and the Vatican itself wanted his radio show shut down; it remained on the air as long as it did because only Coughlin's direct superior had the authority to do so, and he was one of the few bishops who supported him.[[note]]It got so bad that the Federal government created new laws about broadcasting permits just to get him off the air, and when he found a way around that, the National Association of Broadcasters put limitations on the sale of airtime to 'spokesmen of controversial public issues' ''specifically to get rid of him''. Even then, he still spread his ideas through his magazine, to the point that the Attorney General recommended that the Postmaster General revoke his second-class mailing privilege, which the Postmaster actually planned to do, even scheduling a hearing. The only reason he didn't is because Edward Aloysius Mooney became the new bishop of Detroit and therefore Coughlin's new superior, and the Attorney General asked a friend of Mooney's to ask him to get Coughlin to shut up, which he did, threatening to defrock Coughlin.[[/note]]

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Bishop Prang compared to Father Coughlin. Whereas Prang does end up objecting to the brutality of the Windrip regime, Coughlin was a vicious and unapologetic antisemite and fascist, to the point where a large number of American bishops, the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, and the Vatican itself wanted his radio show shut down; it only remained on air so long because only Coughlin's direct superior had the authority to do so, and he was one of the few bishops who supported him.[[note]]It got so bad that the Federal government created new laws about broadcasting permits just to get him off the air, and when he found a way around that, the National Association of Broadcasters put limitations on the sale of airtime to 'spokesmen of controversial public issues' ''specifically to get rid of him''. Even then, he still spread his ideas through his magazine, to the point that the Attorney General recommended that the Postmaster General revoke his second-class mailing privilege, which the Postmaster actually planned to do, even scheduling a hearing. The only reason he didn't is because Edward Aloysius Mooney became the new bishop of Detroit and therefore Coughlin's new superior, and the Attorney General asked a friend of Mooney's to ask him to get Coughlin to shut up, which he did, threatening to defrock Coughlin.[[/note]]

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Bishop Prang compared to Father Coughlin. Where Prang ends up objecting to the brutality of the Windrip regime, Coughlin was viciously anti-Semitic and a fascist, to the point that a large number of American bishops, the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States, and the Vatican itself wanted his radio show shut down; it only remained on air so long because only Coughlin's direct superior had the authority to do so, and he was one of the few bishops who supported him.[[note]]It got so bad that the Federal government created new laws about broadcasting permits just to get him off the air, and when he found a way around that, the National Association of Broadcasters put limitations on the sale of airtime to 'spokesmen of controversial public issues' ''specifically to get rid of him''. Even then, he still spread his ideas through his magazine, to the point that the Attorney General recommended that the Postmaster General revoke his second-class mailing privilege, which the Postmaster actually planned to do, even scheduling a hearing. The only reason he didn't is because Edward Aloysius Mooney became the new bishop of Detroit and therefore Coughlin's new superior, and the Attorney General asked a friend of Mooney's to ask him to get Coughlin to shut up, which he did, threatening to defrock Coughlin.[[/note]]