It Did Happen Here: A History of Art, Culture, and Politics as Amerika Drifted from Depression into Diktatorship, 1929-1939 - Jeronimo Herodotease

Written by Jeronimo Herodotease
Format: MP3

In this satirical alternative history, Professor Jeronimo Herodotease and his team of documentary filmmakers and reenactors revivify the dark days of the Grim Depression and Amerika’s descent into dictatorship. After an assassin’s bullet claimed the life of President-elect Frankie van Rosenvelt, his stodgy old running mate John Chauncey Gardiner was inaugurated in his stead in March 1933. As the depression dragged on and the country was rife with strife and chaos, General Jackson and a cadre of Forcist-minded cockroaches were emboldened to swarm the stage, erode democratic norms, declare martial law, and impose an iron fist under the guise of restoring “Law and Order.” Minorities and illegal aliens were scapegoated for the nations woes, and dissenters daring to oppose the regime found themselves attacked by the Faux News press, whisked away to detention camps, or forced into exile. In retelling the stories of radicals and reactionaries, statesmen and demagogues, cultural producers and political censors, Herodotease reveals a polarized Amerika not unlike that of our own contentious age. Woven into the fabric of the narrative are a plethora of vintage photographs, historical artifacts, and propaganda art, all courtesy of The Wolfsonian–Florida International University. While included with the aim of bringing the persons and events of the 1930s back to life, many of these illustrations have been altered or supplied with deliberately deceptive descriptions to challenge those persons who believe everything they see, to think again. In this era of Facebook fakes, misinformation, and disinformation, unless we remain ever vigilant, it can happen here!