Tim Egan on A Fever In The Heartland

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

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. The Roaring Twenties was 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. A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND is a historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the story of Stephenson 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. Join us when Tim Egan examines the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.