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Liberalism
The Minute Men are Buzz Windrip’s private militia, which he eventually turns into the U.S.’s primary law enforcement and military force. They are similar to the SA and SS in Nazi Germany, or the Blackshirts in Fascist Italy.
Minute Men Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here
The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by Minute Men or refer to Minute Men. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 15
Quotes
Before six, the President had proclaimed that a state of martial law existed during the “present crisis,” and more than a hundred Congressmen had been arrested by Minute Men, on direct orders from the President. The Congressmen who were hotheaded enough to resist were cynically charged with “inciting to riot”; they who went quietly were not charged at all. It was blandly explained to the agitated press by Lee Sarason that these latter quiet lads had been so threatened by “irresponsible and seditious elements” that they were merely being safeguarded. Sarason did not use the phrase “protective arrest,” which might have suggested things.
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“I am addressing my own boys, the Minute Men, everywhere in America! To you and you only I look for help to make America a proud, rich land again. You have been scorned. They thought you were the ‘lower classes.’ They wouldn’t give you jobs. They told you to sneak off like bums and get relief. They ordered you into lousy C.C.C. camps. They said you were no good, because you were poor. I tell you that you are, ever since yesterday noon, the highest lords of the land—the aristocracy—the makers of the new America of freedom and justice. Boys! I need you! Help me—help me to help you! Stand fast! Anybody tries to block you—give the swine the point of your bayonet!”
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Chapter 29
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The universal apprehension, the timorous denials of faith, the same methods of arrest—sudden pounding on the door late at night, the squad of police pushing in, the blows, the search, the obscene oaths at the frightened women, the third degree by young snipe of officials, the accompanying blows and then the formal beatings, […] the waiting in solitude to know what will happen, till men go mad and hang themselves—
Thus had things gone in Germany, exactly thus in Soviet Russia, in Italy and Hungary and Poland, Spain and Cuba and Japan and China. Not very different had it been under the blessings of liberty and fraternity in the French Revolution. All dictators followed the same routine of torture, as if they had all read the same manual of sadistic etiquette.
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Chapter 32
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At exercise hour, the discipline of the men marching out to the quadrangle was broken when one prisoner stumbled, with a cry, knocked over another man, and loudly apologized—just at the barred entrance of Shad Ledue’s cell. The accident made a knot collect before the cell. Doremus, on the edge of it, saw Shad looking out, his wide face blank with fear.
Someone, somehow, had lighted and thrown into Shad’s cell a large wad of waste, soaked with gasoline. It caught the thin wallboard which divided Shad’s cell from the next. The whole room looked presently like the fire box of a furnace. Shad was screaming, as he beat at his sleeves, his shoulders. Doremus remembered the scream of a horse clawed by wolves in the Far North.
When they got Shad out, he was dead. He had no face at all.
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Chapter 34
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She was very sick about his being killed. She was very sick about all killing. She found no heroism but only barbaric bestiality in having to kill so that one might so far live as to be halfway honest and kind and secure. But she knew that she would be willing to do it again.
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Chapter 37
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But as for Doremus, he leaned back not vastly caring what nonsense the others might talk so long as it was permitted them to talk at all without finding that the waiters were M.M. spies; and content to know that, whatever happened, Trowbridge and the other authentic leaders would never go back to satisfaction in government of the profits, by the profits, for the profits. He thought comfortably of the fact that just yesterday (he had this from the chairman’s secretary), Walt Trowbridge had dismissed Wilson J. Shale, the ducal oil man, who had come, apparently with sincerity, to offer his fortune and his executive experience to Trowbridge and the cause.
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Minute Men Term Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here
The timeline below shows where the term Minute Men appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 12
...the street, dressed in blue mock army uniforms. He realizes that they’re Windrip’s militia, the Minute Men , who are led by Colonel Haik. They wear five-pointed stars (because the Jews and...
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...through enthusiastic crowds, who shove policemen and sing Windrip songs. He sees group of nine Minute Men attack an elderly FDR supporter and then a naval officer who tries to intervene. They...
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The Minute Men stand guard all around and throughout Madison Square Garden. The crowd is mostly working-class “Manhattan...
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Chapter 15
...the world attend. Windrip arrives in his old car, leading a procession of veterans and Minute Men .
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...whale of a good time.” Then, he moves into the White House, immediately declares the Minute Men to be a new branch of the Army, and orders the government to arm them....
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Riots break out across the country. A mob of Black activists clashes with Minute Men outside the D.C. jail—two shots ring out and hit the Minute Men. Then, Windrip gives...
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...mad and been locked up in an asylum. He’s never heard from again. Meanwhile, loyal Minute Men start to arrest and kill disloyal squadrons who refuse to do things like arrest treasonous...
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Chapter 16
By the end of February, Windrip is still in power. The Minute Men have violently repressed strikes and protests all around the country, half the Supreme Court has...
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...all sponsored by major corporations. When he arrives, several old men tell him that the Minute Men took their jobs, and the Minute Men are guarding the whole campus.
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...commissioners: an elderly lawyer, a spirited clergyman, a shy laborer, and for Doremus Jessup’s county, Minute Men battalion leader Shad Ledue. Ledue calls Jessup a fool who doesn’t understand economics, but promises...
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Chapter 17
The Minute Men are growing, as its members now receive salaries on top of their almost limitless “expense...
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...strikes: someone realizes that the Soviet emblem is actually a five-pointed star, just like the Minute Men ’s. The Minute Men order every member to propose a new emblem. They end up...
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...they can find the money, they will give every family $5,000. In the meantime, the Minute Men take all unemployed people to labor camps and hire them out to private companies for...
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The government also fulfills its promises to minority groups. Minute Men massacre Black people in the South, leading to riots. Jewish people are required to pay...
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...do. So, the government hires them in the camps to identify everyone who opposes the Minute Men and Corpos. Any social workers who object to this work get sent to jail, or...
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Twelve Minute Men guard Walt Trowbridge, who is settling into a dull retirement at his South Dakota ranch....
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Chapter 18
A large company of Minute Men is training in Fort Beulah, but Doremus Jessup doesn’t pay attention to them until they...
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...10 minutes, and Greenhill reveals that Shad Ledue is trying to get him become the Minute Men ’s medical officer, but he won’t do it.
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...he should. She explains that Shad Ledue visited the Tavern and demanded lower prices for Minute Men . She has also learned that her business partner, Mr. Nipper, is suing her in...
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Chapter 19
...more join, turning the group into an animated mob, and Jessup starts to worry. A Minute Man calls to burn down the building and lynch the “traitors” inside, and then the mob...
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...stops the mob. He announces that the Corpos are taking over the building, and his Minute Men take Doremus Jessup to jail. Jessup worries about Emma and Lorinda. He realizes that one...
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...Jessup up and leads him to the courtroom. Jessup notices that Dilley has ruined his Minute Man outfit and remembers that he was just a poor local farmer.
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Suddenly, Dr. Fowler Greenhill walks into the courtroom. (The Minute Men guards let him in, as he has cured their “unmentionable diseases.”) Greenhill tells the judges...
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Chapter 20
...home to Canada, and the formerly pro-Windrip miller Medary Cole gets fed up with the Minute Men . One day in October, the Corpos send 70,000 Minute Men to capture “every known...
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Chapter 21
...and declares that she’s quitting high school rather than pledge allegiance to the Corpos and Minute Men every morning. Julian Falck comes, too, and explains that the Corpos are shutting down Amherst...
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Chapter 22
Doremus Jessup learns that all around the country, people are rebelling against the Minute Men —and then being captured and executed, left and right. Americans everywhere are watching what they...
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Chapter 23
The Minute Men go through all of Doremus Jessup’s private letters in his study and the Informer office....
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...abandoned trail through the woods to the border, but a searchlight catches them, and two Minute Men walk down a hill to the car. Buck Titus shows the guards his Canadian license,...
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Chapter 25
...wanted to learn Greek but couldn’t afford to go to college. But when a plainclothes Minute Men officer overhears them complaining about how hard life has become under Windrip, he drags them...
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Chapter 26
...of the office, he meets Doc Itchitt. They complain about Doremus Jessup’s politics, trade a Minute Men salute, and say good night. Outside, Wilgus leaves the type in a bucket in an...
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Chapter 28
However, Sissy does convince Julian Falck to join the Minute Men and start collecting intelligence from the inside. They plan to stage a public breakup in...
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Chapter 29
...circle tout their new programs on daily radio addresses, and new government-subsidized movies about heroic Minute Men flood Hollywood. The Windrip dictatorship may have seemed folksy and good-humored at first, but within...
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...like increasing minimum wages that nobody is eligible to receive. Windrip increases funding for the Minute Men so massively that even loyal followers start to wonder why. The administration seizes farmers’ land...
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Chapter 30
...working-class friends, and obsession with politics. Like her grandson David, Emma quite enjoys watching the Minute Men march through town.
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...years, he yearns for Emma. On the Fourth of July, the Jessup family attends the Minute Men ’s grand parade. That evening, a huge car drives through the thunderstorm up to the...
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...Jessup remembers that Francis Tasbrough is the Commissioner now, and he briefly feels relieved. The Minute Men lead Jessup to an old classroom, where he immediately falls asleep on a stiff wooden...
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The Minute Men throw Jessup into a cell with several other prisoners, including Buck Titus, who has a...
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The Minute Men drag Jessup to a foul-smelling basement, pour castor oil down his throat, tear off his...
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Chapter 31
...Cowlick, is too mild-mannered to support torturing the inmates—but also too mild-mannered to stop the Minute Men from doing so. When Jessup first arrives, Cowlick lets him spend a month in the...
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...even Philip (who’s now a judge for the Corpos) all visit Jessup, but under the Minute Men ’s supervision, they can’t say anything interesting. Jessup also receives plenty of useless, censored letters....
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...grandfather, the Rev. Mr. Falck, arrive at Trianon. The guards repeatedly torture Julian, the first Minute Men spy captured in the area. Jessup worries that, with Julian gone, Shad Ledue will finally...
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...excerpt from a Parisian literature professor’s article about visiting the U.S. The professor adores the Minute Men ’s dynamic parades, and when he visits a government labor camp, all the workers assure...
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Chapter 34
Before his arrest, Julian Falck was busy passing information from the Minute Men to the New Underground. He was even chasing a promotion in Hanover, so that he...
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...he reveals that he has been making secret deals with local shopkeepers to defraud the Minute Men .
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Chapter 35
...country’s. When he notices their friendship souring, Windrip gives one of Sarason’s duties—leadership over the Minute Men —to Dewey Haik. He hopes that Sarason will get angry, then ask for forgiveness and...
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...hotel suite instead. One day, Lee Sarason visits, and Windrip suggests taking control of the Minute Men back from Dewey Haik or hiring Osceola Luthorne to help run it. Embarrassed, Sarason reveals...
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...friend. Sarason agrees, then returns home, where he lives with a number of strapping young Minute Men .
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...just get overthrown. In fact, he even says that Sarason was wrong to create the Minute Men . But Sarason points out that Windrip keeps contradicting himself on this point, and he...
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...embezzling money and making treasonous anti-war agreements with Mexico. Sarason starts appointing his favorite young Minute Men to high government offices and holding orgies at the White House, like a Roman emperor.
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Yet thousands of idealistic Corpo supporters and Minute Men immediately oppose the new Sarason regime. These people, like General Emmanuel Coon, deeply believe in...
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...fires all the feeble soldiers and overly corrupt officials (like Francis Tasbrough), and orders the Minute Men to save time by beating fewer prisoners and executing more. He even enlists ministers to...
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Chapter 38
...is dead and that the U.S. has won another battle in Mexico. A group of Minute Men march past the hotel, timidly singing a war song. They’re embarrassed because they no longer...
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