Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

Join the discussion of Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan, our Fact or Fiction Book Club selection for March. Pick up a copy at the Highland Branch.

Summary: "The Roaring Twenties was the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. The man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson. A magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling, Stephenson became the Grand Dragon of the state within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he'd become the Grand Dragon of the state. His strategy brought the KKK out of the shadows: their message was endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. It was a seemingly powerless woman, Madge Oberholtzer, who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees."