Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy

Steven Michels is professor of political science in the Department of Government, Politics, and Global Studies at Sacred Heart University.

Michels (political science, Sacred Heart Univ.) makes the case that Lewis and his work deserve greater attention than the author's "minor" status has heretofore afforded him. One of the primary strengths of Michels's argument is his attention to the serious political ideology that marked Lewis's novels. Lewis interrogated such institutions as the family, the economic system, and religion in addition to beliefs having to do with feminism and nationalism/racism—all matters that demand much more than superficial platitudes. Lewis's in-depth commentary on a broad range of subjects gives his work an authority that many readers have ignored. For instance, Lewis's portrayal, in The God Seekers, of the motives and psychological origins of religious zealotry comes uncomfortably close to present-day realities surrounding religious beliefs. The eponymous protagonist of Elmer Gantry reflects the vagaries of the contemporary "prosperity gospel" and the moral lapses of high-profile televangelists. Michels revisits the relevance of Lewis's thinking with appreciation and in detail, thus performing a necessary service: giving a novelist of ideas his proper due. Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy can be read profitably from both a literary and a societal standpoint, so it has a place in the literature of political science as well as literary studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

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