JohnCephasJr Martin

My reaction as a native of Indiana-adjacent Ohio with family in Indiana is “why didn’t I know this?” which I see in many other comments in this thread. Denial is a great river. We like to think that systemic racism and violence are “a Southern thing” but this book shows undeniably that in the 1920s the worst elements of what we are taught about the South were widespread and warmly embraced throughout the Midwest and West. While the throbbing core was in Indiana, the mid-20s Governor of Oregon and many on the Portland Chamber of Commerce were Klansmen as was the Governor of Colorado and Denver Mayor B.F. Stapleton, namesake of the former airport and new urban neighborhood. By coincidence, when I took a break to watch TV, I happened to stream the 2018 PBS documentary “The Eugenics Crusade” which makes a sobering companion to Egan’s book. As Egan notes in his Epilogue, while we think of the 1920s as flappers, skyscrapers, Gatsby and jazz, that was mostly NYC and LA. The rest of the country was earnestly and eagerly marinated in the ethos of scientific race betterment; in the moment it was the -defining- feature of the 1920s. And as Egan also notes, the real conundrum is not the charismatic leaders but why pluralities and majorities of us have and continue to so eagerly embrace this ethos on actually BOTH sides of the political spectrum. We are all imperfect sinners striving for redemption. Yes, this is required reading, and yes, seconding an earlier comment in the thread, this urgently needs the American Experience Ken Burns treatment of a multi-part video that covers the full scope of material presented. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Another delightful read, its comfort-food of reading, not least because alot of comfort food is deliciously detailed in its narrative. You don’t always need to curl up with horrors and atrocities, you’d like to spend time with complex but likable people, with challenges and frailties that are ultimately resolved and explained. The narrative is engagingly written, beautifully describing the upstate Finger Lakes small-town lifestyle of our dreams, in a way that makes you always want to pick up the book at your next coffeebreak or evening wind-down and find out what happens next, including piquing curiosity about what Book 3 of the series may hold in store next year. And I’m a guy, so I think more than a few XY-folks can find this a guilty relaxation as well.