Grover Gardner
First published in 1935, when Americans were still largely oblivious to the rise of Hitler in Europe, this prescient novel tells a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and offers an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is
...2) Dodsworth
Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable fifty-year-old millionaire and "American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church." Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife, Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe. He agrees for the
...3) Babbitt
Zenith is like many American cities in the wake of the First World War: midsize, industrial, booming with opportunities for enterprising capitalists. But Zenith is unique as a middling metropolis; within its wandering streets walks one George Babbitt, world-class realtor, American dreamer, social climber, and civic booster.
But unexpectedly,...