It Can't Happen Here. We Read Books Instead of Burning Them
ORIGINAL POSTER DETAILS
Circa 1936
Silkscreen
12x18
It Can't Happen Here. We Read Books Instead of Burning Them
NYC Works Progress Administration - Federal Art Project
Artists Unknown
Ennis Carter Collection
books, burning, swastika, library, libraries, reading
This poster was made circa 1936 in conjunction with the WPA Federal Theatre Project's production of a play adapted by SinclairLewis from his novel of the same name. Set in the fictionalized version of 1930s United States, it follows an American politician who promises to return the country to greatness and quickly rises to power to become the country's first outright dictator. Learn more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here
This is the first poster we found that started the whole Posters for the People project to document and celebrate the posters from the #WPA. This example doesn't live in the Library of Congress, so there was no record of it. Now there is in the Posters for the People online archive, where we recorded 2266 posters and counting.
