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Illustrated portrait of Walt Trowbridge

A character in It Can't Happen Here

Walt Trowbridge

Trowbridge is the Republican senator defeated by Windrip in the presidential election.

The book

Cover of It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
It Can't Happen HereSinclair Lewis, 1935

An American dictatorship arrives through elections, promises, resentment, and a leader who insists only he can fix the country.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Trowbridge is the Republican senator defeated by Windrip in the presidential election. He escapes to Canada and becomes leader of the New Underground. He gives the resistance a national structure and receives Doremus after his escape. His final political success remains uncertain because the novel ends during civil war.

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