Sinclair Lewis's "Main Street" is a satirical novel that paints a scathing portrait of small-town life in America during the early 20th century. The story follows Carol Milford, a spirited and idealistic young woman who marries Dr. Will Kennicott and moves to his hometown of Gopher Prairie, a stagnant and provincial backwater in Minnesota. Carol, raised in a more cosmopolitan environment, is quickly disillusioned by the narrow-mindedness and conformity of Gopher Prairie's residents. She finds he

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published the novel It Can’t Happen Here, which told a fictional story of fascism triumphing in the United States. The book was a reaction to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and the spread of demagogic populism in the United States by Huey Long, the strongman governor of Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, the wildly popular antisemitic radio preacher. In Lewis’ alternative universe, a politician named Buzz Windrip, who champions “traditional” values and wh