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

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

“A master class in the tools of narrative nonfiction.” —The Washington Post

From the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author, the "powerful... gripping" (The New York Times Book Review) story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.

The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, Stephenson had become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, 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. A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.

About the Author

Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of nine other books, including the New York Times bestsellers A Fever in the Heartland and The Immortal Irishman. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction.

Author Residence: Seattle, WA

Author Hometown: Seattle, WA