The novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values.

It Can't Happen Here is the only later Sinclair Lewis novel that can compete with Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith in terms of impact. It's a scary, oddly timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America, and it's a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy.

It juxtaposes biting political humor with the chillingly realistic ascension of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare fraud, sex, crime, and a liberal press during the Great Depression, when the population was largely naive to Hitler's aggression.

It Can't Happen Here, a surprisingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and current as today's news, was dubbed "a message to thinking Americans" by the Springfield Republican when it was first published in 1935.