MAP's Reviews > A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

As someone who grew up in Texas, went to college in North Carolina, grad school in Mississippi, and had my first job in Georgia, I was very very very aware of the Klan and its role in southern states. I was not very aware, however, of how the Klan in the 1920s spread, and spread fast and voraciously, to the midwest and North. This book is a riveting exploration of that time period in Indiana and expertly weaves together the man who stoked the fires, DC Stephenson, his crimes against Madge Oberholtzer and the subsequent trial, and the Klan culture surrounding all of these events.

It's a remarkably contemporary story, with a terrifying, cult-like, hate-filled group being led by a corrupt but charismatic leader with political ambitions who has convinced all of this followers that he is a pillar of society while actually being the lowest piece of scum on the earth. In some ways it's depressing to see how history repeats itself and in some ways hopeful to see that we have been here before and ultimately the monster did not prevail. (Although he ruined and ended plenty of lives before his reign of terror was stopped.)