Review by Choice Review
As both a religious and a national movement, the second Ku Klux Klan reflects a continuous journey in US society. Gordon (NYU) examines the 1920s Klan as representative of an ongoing national phenomenon instead of as an aberration limited to a specific era. Vastly different from the post-Civil War Klan that sought the restoration of antebellum Southern society, this new iteration grew in response to Americans' fear of immigration and urbanization. The Klan represented "small town values" while reflecting opposition to Catholics, Jews, Asians, and Hispanics, tapping into the long, deeply held fear of the "other." With the passage of the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act restricting immigration to northern and western Europeans and anti-miscegenation laws in the majority of states, the KKK combined racism and ethnic bigotry with Protestantism and 100 percent Americanism. Opposed by liberals and intellectuals, the Klan represented "average" Americans. KKK ritual replaced the loss of community brought about by urbanization. Women played a significant role in the Klan itself, as well as in their own division, the Women's Ku Klux Klan. Still, this was not an alt-right organization; it embraced liberal ideas such as women's suffrage and companionate marriage. A must read. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Duncan R. Jamieson, Ashland University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
BUNK: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, by Kevin Young. (Graywolf, $30.) Young's enthralling, essential history is unapologetically subjective - and timely. Again and again, he plumbs the undercurrents of a hoax to discover fearfulness and racism lurking inside. A BOLD AND DANGEROUS FAMILY: The Remarkable Story of an Italian Mother, Her Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Fascism, by Caroline Moorehead. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) This portrait of a renowned family of Italian anti-fascists, the Rossellis of Florence, depicts the ethical imperative and repercussions of dissent. The book revolves around two brothers whose resistance efforts ended only when they were murdered in 1937, in France. THE RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS, by Oliver Sacks. (Knopf, $27.) In this last, posthumous collection of essays, Sacks brilliantly delves into his favorite themes: the evolution of life, the workings of memory and the nature of creativity. THE ODYSSEY, by Homer. Translated by Emily Wilson. (Norton, $39.95.) This landmark translation matches the original's line count while drawing on a spare, simple and direct idiom that strips away formulaic language to let the characters take center stage. ENDURANCE: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, by Scott Kelly. (Knopf, $29.95.) In this charming if occasionally convoluted memoir, Kelly details the endless dedication that led to his groundbreaking 12 months in space. He pulls back the curtain separating the myth of the astronaut from its human realities. RAMP HOLLOW: The Ordeal of Appalachia, by Steven Stoll. (Hill & Wang, $30.) Stoll's thesis is built around the concept of dispossession among the people of Appalachia. While the book is meticulously researched, it is also light and readable. Its great strength is that it acknowledges something our politics often fails to: that not everyone wants the same things. THE SECOND COMING OF THE KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition, by Linda Gordon. (Liveright, $27.95.) In an enlightening study troubling for its contemporary relevance, Gordon says "the K.K.K. may actually have enunciated values with which a majority of 1920s Americans agreed." FREYA, by Anthony Quinn. (Europa, paper, $19.) The journalist heroine of Quinn's novel is both headstrong and ambitious. Neither will be assets in post-World War II Britain. THE RELIVE BOX: And Other Stories, by T. Coraghessan Boyle. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.99.) Set in a close alternate reality, Boyle's skewed stories feel as if they're coming from the end of the world, from a time when we will finally be unable to live with what we are and what we have and what we have done. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 29, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
Nearly a century ago, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) enjoyed a resurgence after decades of post-Civil War decline. America in the 1920s was ripe for the organization's appeal, that of a secret fraternal society that extolled the virtues of racial segregation, exhorted members to denounce Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and African Americans, and exemplified ideals of strict morality and fervent patriotism. Most often associated with the rise of discrimination in the Reconstruction South, the KKK of the 1920s sought to expand its reach and its coffers into other regions of the country. Due to an extensive and sophisticated PR machine, the KKK attracted millions of actual members and more covert sympathizers in little towns and urban areas throughout the Midwest, Northeast, and Pacific Northwest. Its vitriol and rhetoric were not new then but, most disturbingly, are all too familiar in today's political arena, lending Gordon's retrospective an urgency and relevance that make it required reading for anyone striving to understand the present through a considered analysis of the past.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gordon (Impounded), professor of history at NYU and two-time Bancroft Prize winner, delves into the cultural and societal conditions that led to the resurgence of the KKK during the 1920s. The work is explicitly informed by the 21st-century rise of conservative populism in America, but Gordon largely leaves direct comparisons with contemporary politics to her readers. She argues that the Klan in the 1920s was a mainstream manifestation of persistent currents in American history that are often dormant but surface periodically. While rejecting the KKK's philosophy, Gordon acknowledges the effectiveness of the Klan's leaders at recruitment and translating their corresponding political power into legislation consistent with their philosophy, specifically antimiscegenation laws and immigration restrictions. Among the strategies she describes is the appeal to a number of American ideological strains: racism, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, and Christian evangelicalism. Recruiters were given pyramidlike economic incentives, and there was widespread use of propaganda and demagoguery to create the perception of threats to white supremacy. Gordon also provides insights into the surprising effectiveness and independence of the women's auxiliaries to the exclusively male KKK. This clear-eyed analysis illuminates the character and historic power of America's own "politics of resentment." (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Between 1915 and 1926, the second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attracted millions of members with many more sympathetic to their views and goals. Exploding from the Klan's original stronghold of the American South, another group flourished in the North, where members were elected and held sway at all levels of government, including governors' mansions, state representatives, and Congress. Historian Gordon (history, New York Univ.; Dorothea Lange) traces the influence of what she calls the six ancestors of the second Klan: the first Klan, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism. These ancestors led the Klan to favor issues, both conservative and liberal, all in support of what was called "100 percent Americanism." The author argues that the Klan was not a uniquely American phenomenon, but one that shared much with the rise of fascist organizations in Europe in 1920s and 1930s. Some of the forces that gave rise to the second KKK have waned in influence today, such as fraternal societies; others, such as populism and nationalism, remain potent and support both left and right-wing movements. VERDICT Essential for anyone interested in how American society and politics of the 1920s have impacted the present.-Chad E. Statler, Lakeland Comm. Coll., Kirtland, OH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An award-winning historian of social movements examines the unlikely rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the North after World War I, underscoring the organization's ideas that "echo again today."Among those ideas were white supremacy, Christian evangelicalism, suspicion of elites, anti-intellectualism, fear of immigrants, and a conviction that American values were under dire threat. Gordon (Humanities and History/New York Univ. Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, 2009, etc.), the winner of two Bancroft Prizes, argues persuasively that the Klan was visible and respected, drawing its membership from the middle class. "In many areas," she writes, "Klan membership brought prestige" and "community status." Like other contemporary fraternal organizations, such as the Masons and Rotarians, the Klan fostered "male bonding through brotherhood and ritual." Elaborate and arcane rituals involved "Klan water," purchased from the organization's national headquarters, "where it was made sacred, like holy water." Membership required learning an intricate vocabulary of rank. The Imperial Wizard reigned over three Great Klaliffs, the Great Klabee, the Great Kligrapp, the Great Kludd, and the Great Night-Hawk, and "chapters were known as Klaverns, each headed by an Exalted Cyclops." New members were "naturalized" at a Klonversation, and the officers of a Klavern were known, tellingly, as Terrors. The Klan was funded through initiation fees, dues, and a pyramid scheme, whereby recruiters worked on commission; the Klan also sold costumes and memorabilia. A member could buy "a zircon-studded Fiery Cross" as a brooch for his wife. Gordon examines in particular Klan popularity in Portland, Oregon, once a bastion of racism, and the attraction of the organization to at least half a million women, many of whom were active in other reform groups, such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In the late 1920s, the Klan was beset by infighting, money troubles, and scandals that exposed leaders' hypocrisy and misbehavior. Its appeal diminished, and membership dwindled. But as the author amply shows, its fearful, angry spirit lives on. A revealing, well-researchedand, unfortunately, contemporarily relevantinvestigation of the KKK's wide support in the 1920s. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
