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

5.0

A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan--Researched well, this is the type of narrative nonfiction that cuts deep. By relaying stories of individuals rather than a full recounting of a nationwide movement, Egan is able to fully communicate the psychological and physical torture, up to and frequently including murder, wrought by the Ku Klux Klan across the country. He focuses on a particular predatory con man in the Midwest who eventually gets a reckoning because of the bravery of a little known woman. There were so many quotes I could highlight, I've attached one here for convenience. Egan, to his credit, does not draw direct parallels to today, they'd likely be in poor taste. However, as one reads this accounting of a loyalist political movement taking steps to install some of their own at every level of government, with core ideals that the sanctity of the family is being ruined by newfound American diversity, that the immigrants coming in are expressly coming from the "wrong part" of the world and thus can't live in accordance with American values, that the theory of evolution being taught in schools is a great affront to children and some heinous actions are justified to protect the American dream, that temperance and particular sexual virtues should be enforced either by governmental edict or by a vigilante force "exposing" the perversions of society...it really makes you think. Two thumbs up.