Babbitt is a classic novel by the American novelist and playwright Sinclair Lewis, first published in 1922. It is a satire about American values, and its main theme is the power of conformity and the vacuity of American life. DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... A playwright is someone who writes for the theatre. ... Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... In historical context The factual accuracy of this section of this article is disputed. ... Conformity is the act of consciously maintaining a certain degree of similarity (in clothing, manners, behaviors, etc. ...

The book takes its name from the principal character, George Babbitt, a middle-aged real estate salesman. He lives a successful life professionally, but he is unhappy. He lives in a fictional Midwestern town called "Zenith," in an unspecified state. Critics say Zenith is loosely based on Cincinnati, Ohio. Zenith's chief virtue is conformity and its religion is boosterism. Babbitt gradually becomes disillusioned with his lifestyle and then rebels against it. However, he eventually finds himself too weak to do so, and lapses back into conformity by the end of the novel. Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... Salesman is a 1969 cinema verité documentary film which follows four salesmen of expensive Bibles door-to-door in a low-income neighborhood which cannot afford expensive Bibles. ... The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ... Nickname: The Queen City Motto: Official website: http://www. ... Boosterism is the act of boosting or otherwise promoting ones city or organization, with the goal of improving the overall quality of the city or organization, as well as its public perception. ...

One of the historical notes about the book is its use of the political word "liberal" from Chapter XXVI (26) and following. The book was written not too long after the project of new liberalism began, and so the term had not yet congealed in the US as standing for a specific stance of the moderate left as in the later New Deal. Babbitt takes to the word liberal as literally meaning "not instantly critical of the left", rather than as an agenda for a set of social programs, and even though he is a conservative businessman. New liberalism (also called modern liberalism or American liberalism) is a political philosophy that argues for the idea that society has the responsibility of guaranteeing equal opportunities for each of its citizens. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: New Deal The New Deal is the name given to the series of programs implemented under president Franklin Delano Roosevelt with the goal of stabilizing, reforming and stimulating the United States economy during the Great Depression. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ...

External links

• Notes from PinkMonkey.com
• Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
• Free eBook Babbit at Project Gutenberg

Babbitt's success as a businessman is contrasted with his ignorance of contemporary social and economic conditions. Lewis, in one of the most dramatic chapters of the novel, deviates from his main narrative to examine the events of the world surrounding his protagonist. George Babbitt lives in complete ignorance of the lives and deaths of his contemporaries -- he focuses on the drama of his own petty life and has no knowledge that entire decades of lived experience that perish while he mulls the petty details of his life. Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. ...

Lewis's description of Babbitt as a man who sold houses "to people for more than they could afford" is one of the most biting and timeless critiques of American society. Babbitt can sucessfully sell a house on credit, but he cannot fathom the complexity of life in America -- yet he is convinced that his sucess as a salesman is a virtue in itself. Implicit in Lewis' portrayal of Babbitt is President Harding's statement that "Business is America's business." In other words, Babbitt is the image of the business man who mistakes commerical success for an understanding of the world at large.