Play Book Tag discussion

Buddy read for A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

BnB (Fran) and I are reading this book, and all are welcome to comment or join in.

First impressions?

I've just started it and I was struck by how some of the thinking sounded so familiar.

The other thing I thought was that one hundred years is not a long time when it comes to new ideas. Grandchildren will hang onto some of the prejudices that their grandparents had.

I peeked ahead and discovered many surprises right away. I had no idea the KKK was so active and widespread, especially in the north. The KKK in the 1920’s sounds a lot like the Nazi Party in the early 1930’s. I learned in grad school that women helped bring down the KKK in many communities and that makes me more excited about this book.
6 million KKK members?
—-

I thought we had made a lot of progress in 100 years, but some attitudes are ingrained in families, and institutionalized in many policies and practices.

I know what you mean about familiar! Some of the same rhetoric was used. The Klan leaders think they’re above the law. They discussed building a big wall to keep out immigrants. A rise in openly racist rhetoric and violence. Putting pressure on politicians to go along with the Klan’s agenda. Womanizing. Oath keepers.

I found this book to be so fascinating! Hope you continue to "enjoy".

I read this book last year, so I'll be following your discussion. Hope you both enjoy it.

I have to say that I am having a hard time plowing through this as it is depressing on many levels.

We have been here before. It's like a step forward and a step back. There is so much familiar and yet none of this was covered in my high school history and it seems steps are being taken that it isn't taught now.

Booknblues wrote: "I have to say that I am having a hard time plowing through this as it is depressing on many levels.

We have been here before. It's like a step forward and a step back. There is so much familiar an..."

Same here. I only read a bit at a time in between other books. I’m finding some of the chapters fascinating though. It’s interesting that the KKK actually might have helped women get the vote. White women that is. They wanted the extra dues money from the women, as well as the extra votes. Of course, it would be easy to control how women vote. Haha.

Women apparently did have a lot of political power when it came to prohibition. It’s funny how hypocritical some of men were about alcohol. They seemed to support prohibition in order to keep the “other” groups from drinking. They knew they could continue to get it. Similarly, years later the “war on drugs” turned out to be the war on minorities using drugs, since they often looked the other way when whites were using.

The other thing that surprises me is that they seemed to hate Catholics as much as Jews. Yet in the 1930’s the Catholic Church was able to exert a huge amount of power over the movie industry. The Hayes Code censorship rules remained into the 1960’s I think. Many of the KKK (women especially) likely approved of the rules.

I finished it, because it was messing with my head so much that I really wanted to put it behind me.

It is chilling and I had not expected it to be such a true crime story or lawyer courtroom.

Do we ever learn from history?

Why is it so easy to have hate driven politics?

Booknblues wrote: "I finished it, because it was messing with my head so much that I really wanted to put it behind me.

It is chilling and I had not expected it to be such a true crime story or lawyer courtroom.

Do..."

Back in 2016 a student told me that Trump just says what everyone else is thinking. I find it hard to believe, but It makes me sad to think that many people feel that way.

There is some evidence that we are preprogrammed to fear “the other.” We need to live in groups to survive, so we need to identify our group and differentiate it from other groups. Even studies with babies show they recognize in-group vs out-group differences. (But it’s not just obvious visual cues.). Japan is struggling now with a steeply declining population, and they will need more people to maintain their economic position. But they are reluctant to allow immigration because of the conflicts and changes it will involve.

I just finished my other book so I’ll get back to this one. It sent me on some google searches last night, Which chapters did you find most interesting, or want to discuss?

NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "I finished it, because it was messing with my head so much that I really wanted to put it behind me.

It is chilling and I had not expected it to be such a true crime story or la..."

I'm not sure which chapters.

Working with young children, I have seen the fear of "the other" , but as a society we can work on with acceptance.

I had a little African-American girl who I was really close to and she loved to be around me, but she would tell me that she wished my skin was the same color as hers and that my hair was like hers.

The last few chapters with the trial were really interesting for me and clearly more redemptive.

This book was an eye opener. I’m still shocked by how popular the Klan was in the northern states in the 1920’s. Can you imagine discovering a Klan costume in your family’s attic? I had a neighbor though who would have fit right in. It was disturbing how much control one person had over all those politicians, and he never held an office himself. But I guess it’s not uncommon for donors or advisers to exert a great deal of influence.

I liked the results of the legal case and the stories about what happened to key people afterwards. Both the rise and fall were faster in the north than in the south, I was really happy to read about the success stories of the reporters and lawyers who fought the Klan at real risk to themselves,

The legal case was disturbing, but it least it made people take notice,
(view spoiler)[ It was just weird and grisly enough for people to demonize the “old man” and - eventually - the klan itself. It made me nauseous reading about what he did to her. I forget how different things were before antibiotics, I’m glad the comparisons to our autocrat didnt go that far. At least our guy doesn’t drink or bite! (I think we would have heard the rumors.) (hide spoiler)]

I like your story about the little girl. I also like that she wished that your skin was different, not her own. It’s better for her self esteem that way.

NancyJ wrote: "This book was an eye opener. I’m still shocked by how popular the Klan was in the northern states in the 1920’s. Can you imagine discovering a Klan costume in your family’s attic? I had a neighbor ..."

Perfect timing. I was writing my review and just posted it.

(view spoiler)[I had no idea the story was going to be so grisly. That poor woman. I had imagined a woman campaigning against the insidious Klan creeping into a small Indiana community. It was not that at all. And there is no way that I would characterize her as triumphant, even though she was in a way at the end.

I looked up both Stone Mountain and the Jefferson Davis Monument are both state parks, Georgia and Kentucky, respectively. Kentucky was not a confederate state and yet they have a state park in honor of the president of the confederacy.
Stone Mountain wasn't completed until 1972.

It just seems wrong (hide spoiler)]

NancyJ wrote: "This book was an eye opener. I’m still shocked by how popular the Klan was in the northern states in the 1920’s. Can you imagine discovering a Klan costume in your family’s attic? I had a neighbor ..."

I know it's not the book under discussion, but I'm almost finished with a book about the Klan in the 1920s myself and it might expand the discussion to the Tulsa massacre of 1921: Dreamland Burning

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "This book was an eye opener. I’m still shocked by how popular the Klan was in the northern states in the 1920’s. Can you imagine discovering a Klan costume in your family’s attic? I ..."

I will be interested to see your take on Dreamland Burning. Tulsa was discussed in Fever in the Heartlands and of course, I have heard about it.

I’m really interested too. I first read about it in a novel, as a memory of a family member. I pictured it as one stree - Black Wall Street , but in the brief description in this book, it was much bigger. People who grew up in the state never learned about it in school, or elsewhere until recent years.

I’m also reading Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

NancyJ wrote: "I’m also reading Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America..."

Let me know when you are reading that. It's been on my tbr for a decade so I would love to finally read it.

I’ve been reading it on and off, It’s not as clearly written as the book we just read, but the legal cases are very important. It’s set in the decades following the Indiana story. The KKK in Florida is more secretive and more effective in scaring people. Thurgood Marshall is very impressive. It is easy to understand how he earned the respect and achievements that led to his becoming the first African American Supreme Court Justice! There are many brave people who devoted their lives to the Civil rights. I think you’ll like it.