Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy

By (author) Steven J. Michels

Not available to order

Publication date:

28 October 2016

Length of book:

200 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498519151

Sinclair Lewis was one of the most astute observers of American social and political life. Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy is a highly readable analysis of his novels. The book examines each of Lewis’s novels on key themes in the history of political thought and democracy including freedom and purpose, success and materialism, and nationalism and race. Lewis is revealed to be an unapologetic individualist and a fierce humanitarian.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

Steven Michels begins his thoughtful book on Sinclair Lewis with the observation that “there is considerable disagreement about what to make of Lewis and even whether he is worth reading at all”.... Michels reads Lewis carefully and sympathetically, resurrecting Lewis’s best ideas and explicitly connecting them to centuries-old debates about democracy.... [Michels's] perspective is...an important one. Lewis himself would appreciate Michels’s careful analysis, and readers of Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy will likely be convinced that Lewis is, in fact, “worth reading” again.