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

Written by Timothy Egan

Narrated by Timothy Egan

"With meticulous detective work, Timothy Egan shines a light on one of the most sinister chapters in American history—how a viciously racist movement, led by a murderous conman, rose to power in the early twentieth century. A Fever in the Heartland is compelling, powerful, and profoundly resonant today." -- David Grann, author of THE WAGER and KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting 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. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. 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 of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. 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.


Photo courtesy of The Indiana Album: Evan Finch Collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Apr 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593670668

Timothy Egan

TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of eight other books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a biweekly opinion column for the New York Times.

Reviews for A Fever in the Heartland

[katherinegregg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book provides an overview of the Ku Klux Klan, focusing on the "Grand Dragon" of the Indiana Klan, D. C. Stephenson, and the death of Madge Oberholtzer whose murder trial landed him in prison, and was the beginning of the end of the Klan.

[susannelson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book BUT truly terrifying given where we are today

[addunn3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent history of the early 20th century rise and fall of the Klan. It would be an excellent resource for a discussion of racism and prejudice in the US.

[katyefk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The toxicity of the KKK was shocking then and what is even more scary is the rise of similar tactics today, but with different names.

[mariannedawnl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Egan challenges the common idea that the KKK was predominately a Southern nuisance by revealing how prevalent and influential the KKK was in the North. The top Klan leader in Indiana was a sexual predator. When his actions lead to the death of one of his victims, her death bed testimony lead to his conviction and was a tipping point in the downfall of the pre-WWII KKK. The were many parallels between what was happening with the KKK in the 1920's and what is going on in the United States today. I appreciated that the author did not feel the need to hit readers over the head with comparisons, letting the history speak for itself.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really an excellent book. A very interesting story told well and informative as all get out. I honestly think at least 90% of the content in this book was new to me. Egan brings all of the various "characters" to life and lines are clearly drawn. This is good vs. evil. Black and white with very few shades of gray.

[smashbasile · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

2 quotes (of many) that really stand out to me, now that I've finished the book:
“He discovered that if he said something often enough, no matter how untrue, people would believe it.”
“The Klan prided itself on how quickly it could spread a lie: from a kitchen table to the whole state in six hours or less.”
Overall, I found this book to be horrifying; just as horrifying as I find historical accounts of other terrible acts and times. The parallels are disgusting.

I'll end my thoughts on this book with one last quote: “Madge Oberholtzer deserves a plaque of her own.”

[stevesmits · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting history of the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and the country in the 1920's. Ultimately, the corruption of its leader and his strangle hold on Indiana politicians was exposed leading to the decline and dissolution of the hate group.

That in our 21st century,a populist charismatic, corrupt, immoral abuser of women, who spreads a message of hate against the "others" could succeed in building a mass movement seems, thank goodness, entirely unlikely. Hmmm........

[zimbawilson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

everyone interested in the past repeating itself should read this book now.

[bereanna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Garden City Book Club choice
Joey, Joe R, Jean, Ken, Bere, Ann, Len, and Jan at the Joeys’ condo.
The hate group hated Jews, Blacks, Catholics and immigrants. They were endorsed by ministers, judges, police, governors, and senators who threatened those who disagreed or who were among the hated. Madge Oberholtzer who was raped viciously and mistreated for days by the evil leader, DC Stevenson, afterwards gave the testimony on her deathbed which brought the empire down.

[galoma_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never knew how popular the Klan was in the midwest in the early 1920s. This wasn't the same Klan that terrorized after the civil war. The 1920s Klan was not marketed as hate. People were encouraged to join because of Americanism and Christianity, and advocating for a return to moral values. Whole communities, law inforcement, city government, churches, and pastors were duped into believing that this was a good group of men. They even had women's auxilaries and the Ku Klux Kiddies for the children. In Indiana, the Klan basically controlled the whole state and had plans to take over the US government.

Thankfully the blinders on people's eyes started to fall off when the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Indiana was tried and convicted for rape and murder. Soon other leaders were convicted of crimes, and it became obvious that the Klan was not about wholesome Christian values but about rape, murder, and political corruption. Within three years, Klan membership in the US was down 90%.
“As the lights were turned on again, few would admit, even sheepishly, they ever had belonged to the Klan,” recalled Harold Feightner.

It is a scary part of history that isn't talked about. Because, obviously, if your grandparents were in the Klan, they certainly would have never admitted it.

[unkletom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hands down, he best book I read in 2023

If this book were published ten years ago, many of us would have read it, thought it was good, and set it aside, gratefully thinking that it was good to live in a country where such things no longer happen. In light of recent events, though, the book’s impact is chilling.

The 1920s America that Timothy Egan describes sounds more like a fantasy akin to PKD’s [book:The Man in the High Castle|216363] than a serious work of American history, but it really happened, however much our parents and grandparents would like to pretend that it didn’t.

After World War One, a host of changes threatened to undermine the stability that many white Americans across the country believed they were entitled to. Immigrants from Europe were pouring into the country. Added to that, millions of black families were fleeing north to escape Jim Crow oppression in what would come to be called the Great Migration. Added to that, the whole world was changing. Women’s dresses and hairstyles were getting shorter and the music, well, enough about that. America needed someone who could stand up and defend good old white protestant family values. Enter the Ku Klux Klan. Crushed and outlawed by President Grant, the Klan reappeared in 1915 and quickly became a political powerhouse with membership as high as 6 million. The Klan boasted 15 senators in its ranks, as well as three governors (Oregon, Colorado & Indiana).

Much of the credit for the Klan’s rapid growth was attributed to a charismatic flim-flam artist from Texas, D.C. Stephenson, who settled in Indiana and realized early on “that he could make far more money from the renewable hate of everyday white people than he could ever make as an honest businessman or a member of Congress”. With that thought in mind, he joined the Klan and in no time at all was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan. Soon, an estimated 400,000 Hoosiers were “induced to pay $10 for the privilege of hating their neighbors and wearing a sheet.” $4 out of every ten went straight into Stephenson’s pocket, along with a substantial profit from sheet sales. His political power was such that he hand-picked Klansman Ed Jackson to be elected governor. Jackson promised to appoint Stephenson to a soon-to-be-vacant senate seat but Stephenson set his sites even higher, on the White House. He often boasted “I am the law in Indiana,” and few doubted that it was true.

Then he met Marge Oberholzer, a bright, quick-witted and strong-willed young woman who was well-known and liked throughout Irvington. This meeting set off a tragic chain of events that led to one of Indiana’s most notorious murder trials and changed the lives and fortunes of millions.

What shocked me the most about this book is how much it reminded me of recent events. That anyone could boast that they would face no consequences for crimes they could or did commit tells me that they have no moral compass. Furthermore, to build one’s political power on hatred, bigotry and intolerance is unconscionable. Finally, when Stephenson said “He believed the trial was a hoax and a witch hunt. The only way they could bring down this giant of a man was…to entrap him,” I couldn’t help but think of someone else who has said the same thing, and that person actually did make it into the White House.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that behind "the yelling, cruel-eyed demons who break, destroy, maim, lynch, and burn at the stake is a knot, large or small, of normal human beings, and these human beings at heart are desperately afraid of something." We all need to face our fears like civilized human beings and not cave in to the baser instincts that some would use to control us.

…

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

[acon10690 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Only part of the first chapter of this book is available on audio then it just ends

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is basically the story of D.C. Stephenson, a white man who was instrumental in the rise and the fall of the Ku Klux Klan. I wasn't as pulled into this story as others by this author perhaps because the main character is so very unlikeable. Stephenson was a charismatic liar who was born into poverty but who learned to portray himself as educated, cultured and patriotic.

After a simering feud with the head of the national KKK, Stephenson found himself in Indiana where he built a strong organization of ordinary white people telling them of the dangers of racial differences, Catholics, Jews, and immigration. Stephenson managed to live in a huge mansion, hold big parties, and claim many major politicans as friends.

He was also extremely violent with women. Madge Oberholtzer was a young woman who feel into his circle. Claiming that he loved her, he had her abducted, and took her to Chicago where he raped, beat her, and bit her all over her body. She was so injured, that she took poison in an attempt at suicide She was delivered back to her home where she died. Stephenson was then charged with murder and against all odds, was convicted and spent most of the rest of his life in prison.

The story is one that I was not familiar with and there are aspects of Stephenson's narrative that sound too much like is heard in the news today.

[msf59 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Ku Klux Klan rose to prominence during Reconstruction but by the turn of the century, this hate group had mostly faded away. For various unpleasant reasons it came roaring back in the 1920s and not in the south as one might expect but smack in the middle of the heartland, with Indiana being ground zero. A charismatic conman named D.C. Stephenson led the way, becoming Grand Dragon, boosting enrollment numbers to disturbing levels. Stephenson wasn’t just a slimy, hate-filled charlatan he was also a serial liar and rapist. Echoes of one of our most recent world leaders, (shudders). The downfall of this repellent man is the heart of this riveting story. As an American, I am ashamed to think our country was such a racist cesspool just a century ago, although I am still aware that we still have a lot of work to in 2023. Mr. Egan delivers once again. One of our best NNF authors. Excellent audiobook too.

[tloeffler_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well-written, well-researched, and absolutely nauseating story of the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana in the 1920s. We should be so ashamed...

[spounds_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Easy to see how a whole country can be taken over by idiots in the name of goodness and right. Amazing that there are those who step up to say the emperor has no clothes.
The writing in this book wasn't great--especially at the beginning. Seems like the editor was not paying attention.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spoiler alert/rape: She stopped them by being brutally assaulted by their leader, taking poison, and surviving long enough to narrate her abuse, leading to a shocking murder trial that actually ended in a prison term. So she stopped them by being a perfect victim, despite his lawyers’ attempts to portray her as a loose woman. That required a huge amount of bravery and suffering, but the activists here are the men (she actually tried to befriend the bad guy, not because she was particularly racist or anti-Catholic, but because he could help her career because of how powerful he was, which shows how this all worked). Anyway, this is the story of how the Klan rose in the Midwest in the early 1920s, due in part to the charisma and brutality of one man, D.C. Stephenson, who seized leadership from the previous, less aggressive leader. He managed to control Indiana politically and had reasonable hopes of controlling the federal government (Klan adherents also won other governorships and a number of seats in Congress, including Senators). Railing against liquor and immorality, he doled booze and naked women out at parties for the politicians he controlled. Hating people was fun and Klan members had fun doing it, at picnics and parades, like Trump supporters today. Although this shifted Black voters towards Democrats, voting restrictions managed to lead to the lowest percentage turnout ever in 1924’s presidential election; it all seemed to be working.

Stephenson’s downfall was undoubtedly good for democracy, but Egan warns in the strongest terms against seeing the overall problem as Stephenson’s doing: “The Grand Dragon was a symptom, not a cause, of an age that has been mischaracterized as one of Gatsby frivolity and the mayhem of modernism. It’s entirely possible that the Klan fell apart not just because of scandals and high-level hypocrisy, but also because it had achieved all of its major goals—Prohibition, disenfranchisement of African Americans, slamming the door on immigrants ….” Hard not to see Trump as an echo, with much less public reaction to his impunity.

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Egan has written an enlightening and frightening chronicle of a sad chapter in the nation's history. The author notes that even though the KKK's influence has waned over the past nine decades, issues involving discrimination and hate crimes are as relevant today as they were in the Roaring '20s. Egan's narrative is vivid without being overly wordy. My only criticism is that I wish the epilogue had spent more time "connecting the dots" between some of the forces that were shaping history back in 1920s and 1930s with events that are continuing to make headlines.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I came across a photocopied news article from the 1920s in my deceased mother's papers telling of a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan chapter in my own little (population 1700) hometown in central Illinois, my jaw dropped in total shock (just as I imagine my mother's did). I had no idea that the KKK had ever been anywhere near my hometown. When I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Timothy Egan, had written a book about the KKK in the 1920s, I knew I had to read it. To call A Fever in the Heartland eye-opening, compelling, and disturbing is the mere tip of the iceberg when describing the book's effect on me.

To learn of the presidents who either condoned or turned a blind eye to this hate group's actions was enlightening. To learn that the KKK had a group for everyone (the KKK for males, the KKK Women's Auxiliary, Ku Klux Kiddies, and Klan Klubs for high school students). To learn that there was a KKK chapter aboard a U.S. battleship and that there was Klan Day at the Indiana State Fair... all this was sobering. The Klan used Indiana's Horse Thief Brigades as its own morality police, and it had its own "poison squads" disseminating fake news. To learn how Indiana became the most saturated Klan state that passed the world's first eugenic sterilization law (which was later picked up by an additional thirty states) was chilling.

The Klan in Indiana had tentacles everywhere, from the governor's mansion to the smallest town, and the Grand Dragon of them all, D.C. Stephenson, was responsible for the huge upsurge in membership across the country. The man was a con man of the highest caliber-- and a violent sexual predator. After each scene in which Stephenson took center stage, I wanted to take a hot shower to wash him off. Repulsive isn't a strong enough word to describe this person. After all that Madge Oberholtzer suffered, it was wonderful to see that she, and she alone, was strong enough to take down this monster.

However, after finishing A Fever in the Heartland, I came away with a feeling of dread.

"Isn't it strange that with all our educational advantages," noted the Hoosier writer Meredith Nicholson, "so many Indiana citizens could be induced to pay $10 [the KKK membership fee] for the privilege of hating their neighbors and wearing a sheet?"

With the events of recent years, I can't help but think that many of us haven't moved very far away from the emotions that overwhelmed the people of Indiana in the 1920s. May we not be doomed to repeat such a dark chapter of our history.

[formerenglishteacher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Being a Hoosier, this book disturbed me more than most people. We here in Indiana are well aware of the state’s love affair with the Klan; however, this book told me that the Klan’s influence was much more that I knew. Even Bloomington, home of Indiana University and a liberal oasis in the state now, was a Klan stronghold. Depressing and embarrassing. The descriptions of the people and situations in the 1920s sound so contemporary, it’s scary. Donald Trump is a Mini Me of D.C. Stevenson, the Grand Dragon of the Klan. I’m sure many readers from Central Indiana have already pointed out a pretty glaring error in the book. Butler University is nowhere near the community of Irvington where Stevenson lived. Irvington is on the far east side of Indianapolis while Butler is on the north side. Small point, but it made me wonder how a book with so much careful research could have such an egregious error.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I knew that the 1920s were a notoriously racist decade in American history, but Timothy Egan’s A Fever in The Heartland still blew me away with the details of KKK political and social domination. Egan spends the first half of the book setting up the Klan’s origin after the US Civil War, its demise at the beginning of the 20th century, and then its return to power. D.C. Stephenson played a large part in the Klan’s return as the charismatic drifter worked his way up to Grand Dragon and ran Indiana with an iron fist. The second half of the book recounts the events leading up to Madge Oberholtzer’s death and the subsequent trial. Egan handles a lot of information and a lot of characters without making it overwhelming, and the story flows easily. I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy US history and narrative nonfiction.