Why read The Second Coming of the KKK?

Book cover of The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition

Book description

Extraordinary national acclaim accompanied the publication of award-winning historian Linda Gordon's disturbing and markedly timely history of the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Dramatically challenging our preconceptions of the hooded Klansmen responsible for establishing a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South, this "second Klan" spread in…

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American history

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Second Coming of the KKK as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

D.J. Mulloy

Author

I always love it when a work of history connects with and helps me understand the present, and Linda Gordon’s book certainly does that.

Not only does she provide a riveting account of the revival of the Klan in the 1920s, she clearly demonstrates the tremendous impact the organization had on America during this period and long beyond, through its skillful use of demagoguery, its canny media strategy and its underlying politics of resentment.

From D.J.'s list on understanding the history of US white supremacy.

Jeff Stookey

Author

I value this book for its thorough description of the many elements that made the Klan of the 1920s so ascendant: its hostility toward immigrants, big city liberal elites, intellectuals, Jews, Catholics, and fear of the many changes in society. The author says she began writing an article about 20th-century American social movements, but because of the 2016 election, expanded it into this book. Similarly, I felt the same urgency to complete my trilogy and get it out to the public at that time. Just as I tried to portray 1920 parallels with our contentious politics today, Gordon concludes by…

From Jeff's list on the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Oregon and the USA.