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

by Timothy Egan

the new Klan would build its foundation with the blessing of Protestant clergy.

He discovered that if he said something often enough, no matter how untrue, people would believe it.

Small lies were for the timid. The key to telling a big lie was to do it with conviction.

“America must close the door to the diseased minds and bodies and souls of the peoples of foreign lands,”

Klan’s reach into the judiciary, part of Stephenson’s plan to get political control throughout the state.

one of the Klan’s most daring schemes: Blacks, Jews, and Catholics were being excluded from jury service in Delaware County.

control of America by peaceful methods,”

They wanted to stock Congress with members who’d taken dual oaths, one in conflict with the other.

There remained one last building block to this emerging dynasty: women.

For the hand that rocks the cradle, as he knew from the old proverb, rules the world.

it is better to be feared than loved.

Klan Klubs were established in high schools. Hooded teens soon had their place in yearbooks in Indiana, featured along with the Glee Club or the Debate Society among the accepted extracurriculars.

The fake news originated at the top and was planted at the bottom.

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.