Book this Discussion
Invitation from Naperville LWV
The Naperville League of Women Voters has invited any McLean County members to join their Zoom book group. This year’s theme is biographies.
Each book has a discussion leader and they discuss the same book on the third Friday afternoon and the following Tuesday evening of each month. They ask people to register in advance to get the link to the Zoom meeting. Links for each event can be found on their website under the Events tab.
The January book 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.
The Roaring Twenties was not just the Jazz Age-- 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.
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.
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Here's what's on tap for 2024 -
January: A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
February: Carry on For a New Generation by John Lewis
March: Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney
April: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candace Millard
May: Madame Secretary: A Memoir by Madeleine Albright
June: Everyday is a Gift: A Memoir by Tammy Duckworth
July: Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins
August: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kristen Downey
September: A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation and the New American Story by Raphael Warnock
(optional) America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity by Tim Scott
October: The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs by Amy Klobacher
November: There’s Nothing for You Here by Fiona Hill