Books for Breakfast: A Fever in the Heartland

Each month we discuss a book which the group has chosen at the end of the previous year. At our February 2026 meeting we will discuss A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. 

This historical thriller tells the story of the  Ku Klux 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 was the height of the KKK. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure. The man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson. 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.

At Books for Breakfast we try to have coffee and tea available, usually one of the members brings a snack or treat, based on a schedule we create at an earlier meeting. The food & coffee is incidental to the book discussion.  A Librarian puts books on hold for everyone on our Books For Breakfast List; if you are new to our group you may place a hold yourself, or contact Librarian Julia Schult to place a hold for you.