A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

[Raven123]

Just finished this 2023 book about on the rise and fall of D.C. Stephenson who in the 1920s became the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Indiana. It is a chilling study of bigotry extending to everyone who wasn’t a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male, how that organization infiltrated the highest realms of government, how it spread beyond the borders of Indiana, and how it was undone by a brutal crime by Stephenson that frankly he could have gotten away with except for some extraordinary events.

The similarities between then and now are too many to ignore.

I highly recommend this book, but be prepared to be disturbed.

[BOSSHOG]

1. That was such a disturbing book

I read it several months ago. I just can’t understand what makes monsters tick. My father was born and raised in Indiana. My oldest cousin, pushing 80 has lived his life in Indiana. He dabbles in genealogy and told me he’s pretty sure our paternal grandfather was in the Klan in the 1920s. Not surprising that any white man was in the klan then in Indiana. I’m happy to say that the poison never rubbed off on me and my brother. We never lived in Indiana thank goodness.

You are right My Friend, the similarities exist. And the fight continues. I’m holding on to that book and right now I don’t know why.