A review by duckoffimreading
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

4.0

In typical Timothy Egan fashion, he takes a very in-depth look at a dark period of US history: 1920’s Indiana and the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan. I know this organization comes and goes in favor, but this period seemed particularly troubling. Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson let all his power, control and greed bring him (and many others) down. He was convicted of Madge Oberholtzer’s murder after she poisoned herself following a horrific sexual assault by Stephenson and she wrote a testimony about her experience before she succumbed to her condition, thus condemning her attacker from beyond the grave. This woman helped shake Indiana loose from the absolute chokehold the KKK had over the state - the corruption permeated all the government offices. I couldn’t help but think of our current times and the extreme hatred that persists within the same political party, 100 years later to the day! Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.