Fact Meets Fiction

Alum’s novel raises questions

le Miss alumnus James Ward (BA 80) creatively mixes personal experiences with his knowledge of public policy to tell a fictional story that addresses real-life issues in a new book, Fuhrer’s Heart: An American Story.

The book, set in New Orleans in the late 1980s when former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke was rising onto the national political stage, was inspired by Ward’s own experiences in academia in New Orleans. “I was a young political science professor at one of the local universities at the time,” he said. “Although I was amazed by the level of Duke’s support, it was the fervor of his hidden supporters that made him the phenomenon that he became. Fuhrer’s Heart is a story about those hidden supporters.”

Now a professor of political science at Mississippi University for Women, Ward said the fictional mystery novel incorporated some of the same issues he takes up in his academic research, including social justice, racial equality and effective government. “Developing these themes into a novel is not that much of a stretch,” he said. “All it takes is creativity and imagination.”

Indeed, a recent review in Public Voices—a journal published by the National Center for Public Performance at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University—asserts, “Whether it is racism, anti-Semitism, or anti-immigrant sentiment, the hostilities explored in Ward’s book surround us still today… When we speak of ‘diversity’ in the workplace, do we truly mean welcoming all varieties of people or do we limit it to those we happen to be most concerned about? Are we willing to talk about the ways we perpetuate separation between groups by avoiding understanding other cultures? Conversely, do those of us in groups which are often discriminated against perceive hostility where none is present or perpetuate the pattern by looking down on others? A lot of questions for a small murder mystery to raise… but all worth exploring.”

Ward majored in journalism and sociology at Ole Miss. Following graduation, he worked for the Knoxville News-Sentinel in Knoxville, Tenn., and at WCBI-TV in Columbus. He then earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati. He has taught at Washington State University, New Mexico State University and the University of New Orleans. He returned to Mississippi in 2005 after his home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

For more information on Fuhrer’s Heart: An American Story, including where to purchase a copy, visit www.fuhrersheart.com.