The title to be discussed is "A Fever in the Heartland the Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them" by Timothy Egan.
A Fever in the Heartland the Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan is available as a print book, an e-book, and as a downloadable audiobook in the Library's collection.
"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 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."
The Broad Ripple community has enjoyed library service at various sites since 1930. The first stand-alone library opened in 1949 adjacent to School No. 80 and continued at that location until a larger branch opened in Broad Ripple Park in 1986. Facing a need for continued growth, the Glendale Branch was constructed in 2000 in Glendale Mall and became the country’s first full-service library located in a major shopping mall.
In 2024, a new 24,800 square-foot Branch located at the site of the former John Strange Elementary School opened. The move into this new space began the next chapter of service to the vibrant Glendale community.
