Almost forgotten now, the decade of the 1930s in this country was populated with several radical fascist movements (anti-immigrant, anti Semitic, anti-Communist) that included the Silver Legion of America (the 'Silver Shirts'), the German American Bund (pro-Nazi), and several others, all fed by the anti-Semitic rantings of Fr. Coughlin, the radio priest. It's a part of American history that most young people today may find difficult to believe. Looking back, we see Hitler's Nazi Germany as a lunatic aberration, the kind of thing that just couldn't happen here. Younger Americans might be embarrassed to discover that many Americans of that period also embraced such fascist ideas.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), author of "Babbitt," "Main Street," and "Elmer Gantry", was concerned about the rise of right wing fascism in America. Lewis published his novel "It Can't Happen Here" in 1935 in the hope that it would help avert what he felt was a looming catastrophe in America. Lewis felt he had to expose many of the collective prejudices and resentments present in the American character of the 1930s. Reissued in 2005, this novel is an unsettling read.

The novel, perhaps not Lewis's best (he wrote it in 60 days) and perhaps too hyperbolic and satirical, is still prescient. It serves as a warning that political movements like fascism can come to power democratically even in the United States.

The novel echoes its time. The Great Depression is dragging on, the New Deal is under attack, FDR is vulnerable, and the GOP had crashed. The people "once sunny, confident, and forward looking" are now scared, angry, and disillusioned. Conspiracy theories abound. Some say it is the fault of international bankers (i.e., Jews). Others blame foreigners (immigrants). Others blame the communists and intellectual elites. People are desperate for strong leadership and as a result the numerous populist movements led by fire-breathing demagogues promising deliverance have a dangerous appeal to many Americans.

This then is the story line of Lewis's novel: It is the middle of the Depression and people everywhere are suffering. A folksy, "aw-shucks," plain speaking politician from the South rises to power during a period of profound unrest in America. He is the "Common Man" and the people love him. He is one of them.

It is also the story of a small town Vermont newspaperman Doremus Jessup resisting the fascist administration of the newly elected President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip. The character of Windrip, is an amalgam of several patriotic (and anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and anti-communist) populist agitators of the 1930s.

"Buzz" Windrip campaigns for the Presidency by relentlessly attacking the liberal media, fancy-talking intellectuals, shiftless progressives, communists, promiscuity, international bankers, and welfare hangers-on, while at the same time promoting a return to traditional values, patriotism, love of country, and the "good ole days." He speaks ambiguously about the noble goals of liberty, freedom, and equality -- and the people love him, even if they don't fully understand him.

Behind the scenes, Windrip is coached by his right hand man and "brain," Lee Sarason. Sarason writes Windrip's speeches and papers and orchestrates the campaign from the background. Windrip cozies up to the electorate by stroking their disdain for the fancy talk of intellectuals and encouraging them to follow their hearts, not their minds. His platform is not entirely clear, but none of that matters as long as he keeps expressing himself "decisively." Windrip declares, "We've got to change our system a lot, maybe even change the whole Constitution...The Executive has got to have a freer hand and be able to move quick in an emergency..." With a combination of massive donations from big business, a disorganized liberal left, the support of religious fanatics, a stuffy opponent, and a dispirited and unsettled populace, the country boy wins the presidential election.

Shortly after winning, Windrip's personal Minute Men (his storm troopers) are made an official arm of his government. Given the nature of "powerful and secret enemies" of America who are planning to take away our freedoms, an indefinite state of crisis is declared, and civil liberties are stored away for safekeeping. When the threat passes, we can have them back. But in the meantime, citizens are asked to "bear with" and "support" their President.

Windrip's Minute Men immediately arrest and detain 100 congressmen. Windrip then forces a weakened Congress to surrender its authority and give the President emergency powers. He appoints his friends and political advisers to high-level positions, stuffs the Supreme Court with his stooges, and allows big business to write economic policy. Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights are out. Courts become military tribunals. Labor unions are dissolved, strikes are outlawed, and corporate presidents are made officers of the state. They close universities (the liberal ones) and start new state schools that teach an administration approved curriculum where all students must take military training. They close libraries and cull and burn subversive books. Personal mail is read and censored. Telephone calls are tapped and monitored. Labor camps are established for the unemployed and political concentration camps for dissidents under "protective arrest." Unemployment almost disappears (all the unemployed are in labor camps). The government begins to print money causing inflation and the dollar and exports to fall. Sugar becomes too expensive to import.

Windrip's Minute Men intimidate and take over the independent press, consolidate and censor the media, and fill the government controlled newspapers with pap -- government issued press releases and propaganda, and entertainment news from Hollywood, but virtually no real domestic or international news. Importation of foreign newspapers is banned and ports are rigorously monitored. A few brave newspapermen worry that America is moving backward to a time when anti-German politicians in Washington renamed sauerkraut "Liberty Cabbage". But newspaper readers pay little mind. The people like it.

Many responsible citizens, well educated and well off, stand by passively and do nothing. Others do speak out and are sent to political detention centers. Some try to flee to Canada, but the borders are sealed. Some shamefully join the ranks of the administration. Others form a new underground railroad to smuggle others out and to print seditious papers at the risk of their lives.

All that is left of the old America are the flags and patriotic songs, and for many patriotic Americans that is enough.

However, unrest begins to grow in a now questioning middle America. In order to still this unrest, the new dictator begins a PR campaign to divert the people's attention by insinuating that Mexico is about to invade America. Incidents of Mexican incursions of our borders are manufactured and reported in the administration controlled press. "The American newspapers...were full of resentment against Mexico. Bands of Mexicans had raided across into the United States...they burned a town in Texas..." and so on. "To answer this threat, America, the one country that had never lost a war and never started an unjust one, rose as one man. ...In one month, five million men were drafted for the invasion" of Mexico.

"It Can't Happen Here" follows in the tradition of other dystopian novels -- Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984." Because this exaggerated story is grounded in a tangle of 1930s historical detail, the novel has come to be ignored or dismissed as irrelevant today. In view of the current resurgence of right-wing extremism worldwide, a re-examination of this cautionary tale (in its historical context) is perhaps now warranted -- it may still have relevance.

To Lewis the disaster he so vividly paints was not entirely the fault of the voters who gladly put up with America's principles being gutted. The blame, Lewis asserts, also falls on the complacent and passive "it can't happen here" crowd -- those Americans who failed to realize that being American does not change basic human nature, that whatever it is that attracts people to tyranny exists in the souls of Americans as well.

Sinclair Lewis was trying to warn Americans. This novel is still a cautionary tale for all who will listen.