The book describes how a fascist dictatorship comes to power in the United States in the 1930s. It is not Sinclair Lewis's strongest writing, but the story of how everything happens -- the harnessing of dissatisfaction and racism, exploiting patriotic symbolism and themes, voters consenting to give their rights away -- was eye opening for me at an age when I was moving past the optimism and idealism of my youth. It made it clear that, while the literal Nazis could not do in the US what they did in Germany, there was nevertheless a uniquely American way that we could end up in largely the same situation.