April
5, 2023
It
borders on cliché the number of times historians lament how “fascism” is an
over-used term. But Sinclair Lewis, writing about the specter of fascism a
century ago, understood something most historians don’t – that U.S.
intellectual culture is loathe to acknowledge fascist undercurrents in this
country. I attribute this hostility to intellectuals’ belief that their nation
is an exceptionalist democracy – hence fascism “can’t happen here.”
