— American dystopias on the rise in popular culture

NEVER AGAIN sounds the theme of an American dystopia, a United States that turns on its Jewish citizens, arrests them, takes away their rights, and creates red, white and blue detention camps. This is a popular theme in current American culture.

  • Image result for handmaid's tale     THE HANDMAID’S TALE, the Hulu television series based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, has been approved for a third season. It describes an America governed by religious zealots.

 

  • Image result for man in high castle     THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, released by Amazon Prime, is also moving into its third season. It is based on a 1962 novel by science fiction author Phillip K. Dick and takes place in a present day world in which Germany and Japan won the Second World War.

 

  • Front Cover     THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA joins this trend with a television series just purchased by HBO based on Philip Roth’s 2004 novel. Roth imagines an America in which aviator Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election. Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer, keeps the United States neutral in the war.

 

  • It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics) by [Lewis, Sinclair]     IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE was written by Sinclair Lewis in the height of the Great Depression. It depicts a United States dominated by a nationalist tyrant. This classic but mostly forgotten novel was recently reissued and is now an Amazon Best Seller.

 

  • never cover     NEVER AGAIN fits into this fascination with how things might be had one or another trigger event launched the United States toward a totalitarian government.

 

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