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The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland
"Who is an American?" asked the Ku Klux Klan. It is a question that echoes as loudly today as it did in the early twentieth century. But who really joined the Klan? Were they "hillbillies, the Great Unteachables" as one journalist put it? It would be comforting to think so, but how then did they become one of the most powerful political forces in our nation's history?
In The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, renowned historian James H. Madison details the creation and reign of the infamous organization. Through the prism of their operations in Indiana and the Midwest, Madison explores the Klan's roots in respectable white protestant society. Convinced that America was heading in the wrong direction because of undesirable "un-American" elements, Klan members did not see themselves as bigoted racist extremists but as good Christian patriots joining proudly together in a righteous moral crusade.
The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland offers a detailed history of this powerful organization and examines how, through its use of intimidation, religious belief, and the ballot box, the ideals of Klan in the 1920s have on-going implications for America today.
In The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, renowned historian James H. Madison details the creation and reign of the infamous organization. Through the prism of their operations in Indiana and the Midwest, Madison explores the Klan's roots in respectable white protestant society. Convinced that America was heading in the wrong direction because of undesirable "un-American" elements, Klan members did not see themselves as bigoted racist extremists but as good Christian patriots joining proudly together in a righteous moral crusade.
The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland offers a detailed history of this powerful organization and examines how, through its use of intimidation, religious belief, and the ballot box, the ideals of Klan in the 1920s have on-going implications for America today.
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2020
65 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
James H. Madison
48 books16 followersJames H. Madison is the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History Emeritus, Indiana University Bloomington. Madison serves on the boards of Indiana Humanities and the Indiana Historical Society and is a member of the Indiana Bicentennial Commission. He began teaching Indiana history in 1976 and has lectured and consulted widely on Indiana topics.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 5, 2022
Not incredibly well written, but it’s an interesting overview of the KKK’s presence in Indiana in the 1920’s. Even more interesting ( and encouraging) was Madison’s chapter on the ways Hoosiers resisted the KKK ( I learned about a number of heroes I hadn’t heard of before). Worth the read!
June 9, 2023
This book is an excellent source of information about the Klan in Indiana, its dominance here and its strategies. Extremely well researched with with lots of images from the time, this is a great deep dive into a narrow and very dark canyon in Indiana history. I do realize that everyone is talking about Egan’s book right now and I’m reading that one too. I do think there’s some value in reading history written by a historian, though Egan’s book is more narrative. I’ll also note my preference for Indiana authors who tend to avoid the trap of treating Indiana like some foreign distant country. We’re right here. One of you. In the middle.
April 11, 2021
Focusing on the Klan in the 1920s, Madison uses extensive research to share how and why the group came to hold so much power. Very academic, but an important addition to our state's history books.
February 3, 2022
Very interesting read! I always thought of the KKK as a group focused on marginalizing African Americans. That was the focus of the Klan that was present in Indiana during my lifetime. But previous iterations of the KKK were very different. This book focuses on the KKK as it existed in Indiana in the 1920's. They were a group driven by Protestant faith and the protection of Protestant ideals through whatever means were available to them at the time (this included newspapers, movies, and political infiltration in addition to intimidation and bribery). Though they were fierce advocates for racial purity, African Americans were not really the KKK's concern at the time (perhaps that's only because the African American population in Indiana at that time was quite small). What the KKK in Indiana in the 1920's was most opposed to was Catholics and immigrants. There wasn't a lot written in this book about the group as it existed in the area where I live and where my family lived at that time apart from a mention that the mayor of the county seat during that time was anti-Klan. Perhaps that's why I never heard anything about the Klan or its work despite the fact that my family was enemy #1 of the Klan at that time, Catholic immigrants.
The book also touches on the importance of acknowledging these parts of our history. There are those people who want to banish any memories of shameful events as though they think they're punishing the guilty by cancelling them from the past. In reality, pretending these things didn't happen only increases the opportunity for those things to happen again. This is certainly not what we want.
One thing that also was going through my mind was the idea of the psychology behind the rise and fall of the group. We tend to focus more on the ideals of the group and less on the motivations, the rise to power, and the abuse of that power and how all of those things impacted people. It brought to mind an interesting thought of the evolution of groups or movements and how that has changed during modern times.
The book also touches on the importance of acknowledging these parts of our history. There are those people who want to banish any memories of shameful events as though they think they're punishing the guilty by cancelling them from the past. In reality, pretending these things didn't happen only increases the opportunity for those things to happen again. This is certainly not what we want.
One thing that also was going through my mind was the idea of the psychology behind the rise and fall of the group. We tend to focus more on the ideals of the group and less on the motivations, the rise to power, and the abuse of that power and how all of those things impacted people. It brought to mind an interesting thought of the evolution of groups or movements and how that has changed during modern times.
December 31, 2021
James Madison has written a history of the Klan in Indiana from its founding in the 1920's to its attenuated version of the present day. The 2nd iteration of the Klan at the beginning of the 20th century was a nationwide movement, and nowhere was it stronger than in the Hoosier state. It was estimated that at its peak one third of the adult male population of Indiana were Klan members.
Primarily an anti-Catholic movement, but reserving no small amount of hostility towards blacks and Jews, the Indiana Klan was devoted to a form of Americanism that catered to what they viewed as "100% Americans"--in other words, white native born protestants of northwestern European ancestry. Anti-immigrant animus towards those with roots in eastern and southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, etc.) fueled the movement. Rash and unfounded conspiracy theories, fear of miscegenation and the "immoral" impacts of the consumption of alcohol, Jazz, movies, fashion trends, and the rise of use of automobiles for amorous activities by young people contributed to the hysteria. The Klan, it was believed, would restore order, morals, patriotism and white dominance to Indiana and the nation.
This book does a fantastic job of documenting the rapid rise of the Klan in Indiana from its earliest days in January of 1923 to its implosion when Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson was tried and convicted for his alcohol fueled rape, torture and murder of a young woman named Madge Oberholzer. It was soon revealed that Stephenson was a grifter and corrupt manipulator of Republican politicians, and that the governor--along with other influential Republican politicians--were in Stephenson's back pocket.
The parallels between the politics of the Heartland of my grandparents' era and today are striking. Hoosiers need to read this.
Hell, Americans need to read this.
Add it to your library.
Primarily an anti-Catholic movement, but reserving no small amount of hostility towards blacks and Jews, the Indiana Klan was devoted to a form of Americanism that catered to what they viewed as "100% Americans"--in other words, white native born protestants of northwestern European ancestry. Anti-immigrant animus towards those with roots in eastern and southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, etc.) fueled the movement. Rash and unfounded conspiracy theories, fear of miscegenation and the "immoral" impacts of the consumption of alcohol, Jazz, movies, fashion trends, and the rise of use of automobiles for amorous activities by young people contributed to the hysteria. The Klan, it was believed, would restore order, morals, patriotism and white dominance to Indiana and the nation.
This book does a fantastic job of documenting the rapid rise of the Klan in Indiana from its earliest days in January of 1923 to its implosion when Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson was tried and convicted for his alcohol fueled rape, torture and murder of a young woman named Madge Oberholzer. It was soon revealed that Stephenson was a grifter and corrupt manipulator of Republican politicians, and that the governor--along with other influential Republican politicians--were in Stephenson's back pocket.
The parallels between the politics of the Heartland of my grandparents' era and today are striking. Hoosiers need to read this.
Hell, Americans need to read this.
Add it to your library.
April 30, 2021
This is a short book (around 150 pages, minus photos and notes), and it does focus largely on the relatively short time of Klan activity in Indiana. Madison does a great job of documenting major events and not excusing Hoosier acceptance of the Klan (although he does flirt with the "good people, bad decisions" line). If the book weren't so short, I wouldn't be moving on to what I think he should have done, as I am not a fan of criticizing writers for not writing the book that I would have written). Anyway, I do think that, except for the 20s, he does underplay the level of complicity on the part of average Hoosiers. In the final chapter, about the remaining elements of Klan ideology, he recounts Matt Heimbach's story as though he were an aberration, and discusses Gov. Mike Pence's RFRA and the backlash it produced as though there were no further evidence of far right thinking. Trump comes up, but Madison doesn't mention that Trump chose Pence to appeal to the evangelical right and that Pence proceeded to do so. He mentions that Indiana went for Obama and doesn't mention that Indiana went heavily for Trump/Pence or that the gerrymandered supermajority legislature is furthering the Pence agenda.
Read the book; it's interesting and informative, but don't assume that it gives a good picture of politics in Indiana.
Read the book; it's interesting and informative, but don't assume that it gives a good picture of politics in Indiana.
September 11, 2025
Press. 231 pages.
As someone who spent a lot of time in Indiana over the past decade, I always heard of the connection of the Klan in that flat state. I heard that Richmond Indiana was once the headquarters of the Klan. This book gave me a good preview of the Klan in the state that borders my own, Ohio, and confirmed some things I hard and provided a few very interesting stories. This is a very quick read and well documented by Madison.
The book starts with a very basic introduction, expressing that the Klan had three movements in the United States – and in Indiana: after the Civil War, in the 1920’s then again in the turbulent 1960’s when the hate group returned out of the mainstream. While the author stated that the Klan was not overall violent in Indiana, unlike the KKK in the South, there were some actions of intimidation and cross burnings. The book illustrated how the Klan had such acceptance and was involved in government, almost taking the Governor’s position.
Madison concentrates on the Klan movement in Indiana in the 1920’s. As I had heard, Richmond, right across the Ohio border, was a headquarters of the Klan. I learned a newspaper reported they were planning to build a headquarters building with a 6,500-person auditorium. This book reports that about one-third of the native-born men in Indiana belonged to the hate group.
One of the powerful messages of this book is that hate groups like the Klan do not develop on their own; they are created in environments where hate is evident in society. At the time when the Klan revived in Indiana, the states premier corporation, Eli Lilly, had restrictive hiring policies for Jews, Catholics, and African Americans (and women); the Klan especially targeted Catholics in the 1920’s. There was considerable fear about Catholics arriving from Ireland and Germany, with rumors about the power of the faith and Pope. Playing out the 1960’s presidential race with a Catholic, the Catholic mayoral candidate for Evansville in 1925 was attacked for his religion. Catholic schools were attacked in parades through the 1920’s in Indianapolis. Years before the attack on Jewish businesses in Germany, the Klan in Indianapolis organized a boycott of Catholic-owned businesses. The book pointed out that the hate groups and politics at the time led to racist immigration policies in our country that existed for the next four decades.
While the Klan focused mostly on Catholics, society also segmented the few African Americans who moved to Indiana. Developers in now liberal Bloomington had written restrictions to keep Blacks from moving close to the university.
While the Klan claimed the Republican party, most Democrats and many faith-based institutions stayed on the sidelines of the hate group, not wanting to alienate part of their own base. It was encouraging to read that the Klan was turned away from holding a rally in 1922 in Indianapolis due to the resistance of the NAACP, although two years later a growing Klan got a permit and had 5,000 robed people marching down the streets to the circle.
Madison presents an interesting story of a long-time Klan leader, Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, a low life who drifted until he ended up in Indiana. Stephenson started out as a Socialist then tried being a Democrat before finding a home in the hate group. He learned he could make considerable money publishing the Fiery Cross and selling memberships in the Klan; the author estimated he made $2.5 million (in 2006 dollars) in 1923. He built a cult of personality despite his violent behavior to women. But he went too far when his partner died and, on her death bed, made a statement against him on April 14, 1925. After the problem of finding a fair jury, Stephenson was found guilty but expected a pardon from the governor who was well connected. After an investigation from the Feds, it was learned that Governor Jackson had received a $2,500 bribe; Jackson was also sent to prison. Newspapers covered the scandal, hurting the Republican candidates and helping to kill off the Klan in Indiana. Soon thereafter, no one wanted to admit they were part of this hate group.
Interesting enough, the Klan still maintained some involvement in the Republican party even into the 1950’s for a future governor, Governor Henry Schricker, gave Stephenson a pardon with the provision that he would leave the state. He didn’t – and ended up back in prison only to be given clemency in 1956 by yet another executive of the state, Governo George Craig.
There were some groups and individuals who fought the Klan, including Joseph Patrick O’Malley who was editor of the Indiana Catholic and Record, students at Notre Dame University who defied their school to protest the Klan when they were demonstrating nearby, and Louise and Rose Shapiro who changed the name of their establishment from American Grocery to Shapiro’s Kosher Foods to thumb their nose at the Klan – and hate. While most protestant churches stayed quiet including Methodists and Baptist. The Episcopal Diocese approved a resolution taking a stab at the Klan. Labor unions also often stayed quiet, but the Evansville AFL-CIO took aim at the Klan. The editor of Muncie Post-Democrat, George Dale, also opposed the Klan in his Republican town.
The Klan was swept away in the 1929 municipal elections. Two thirds of Indiana towns voted Democrats in office, including eight of the state’s largest cities replacing Republican mayors with Democrats.
The book closes with a quick chapter on how the Klan came back again in the 1960’s. This time the people under sheets did not pretend to be mainstream and put African Americans in their aim. Catholics had moved to the mainstream, thanks to many factors including a Catholic president. They also confronted more opposition, including the NAACP and the Urban League. More importantly, the FBI and police groups watched the KKK and brought the law down on them.
It was hard to read this book because it gets to the basic fiber of our neighbors: racism, sexism, antisemitic views. But it is what all of us should read to better understand human behavior.
As someone who spent a lot of time in Indiana over the past decade, I always heard of the connection of the Klan in that flat state. I heard that Richmond Indiana was once the headquarters of the Klan. This book gave me a good preview of the Klan in the state that borders my own, Ohio, and confirmed some things I hard and provided a few very interesting stories. This is a very quick read and well documented by Madison.
The book starts with a very basic introduction, expressing that the Klan had three movements in the United States – and in Indiana: after the Civil War, in the 1920’s then again in the turbulent 1960’s when the hate group returned out of the mainstream. While the author stated that the Klan was not overall violent in Indiana, unlike the KKK in the South, there were some actions of intimidation and cross burnings. The book illustrated how the Klan had such acceptance and was involved in government, almost taking the Governor’s position.
Madison concentrates on the Klan movement in Indiana in the 1920’s. As I had heard, Richmond, right across the Ohio border, was a headquarters of the Klan. I learned a newspaper reported they were planning to build a headquarters building with a 6,500-person auditorium. This book reports that about one-third of the native-born men in Indiana belonged to the hate group.
One of the powerful messages of this book is that hate groups like the Klan do not develop on their own; they are created in environments where hate is evident in society. At the time when the Klan revived in Indiana, the states premier corporation, Eli Lilly, had restrictive hiring policies for Jews, Catholics, and African Americans (and women); the Klan especially targeted Catholics in the 1920’s. There was considerable fear about Catholics arriving from Ireland and Germany, with rumors about the power of the faith and Pope. Playing out the 1960’s presidential race with a Catholic, the Catholic mayoral candidate for Evansville in 1925 was attacked for his religion. Catholic schools were attacked in parades through the 1920’s in Indianapolis. Years before the attack on Jewish businesses in Germany, the Klan in Indianapolis organized a boycott of Catholic-owned businesses. The book pointed out that the hate groups and politics at the time led to racist immigration policies in our country that existed for the next four decades.
While the Klan focused mostly on Catholics, society also segmented the few African Americans who moved to Indiana. Developers in now liberal Bloomington had written restrictions to keep Blacks from moving close to the university.
While the Klan claimed the Republican party, most Democrats and many faith-based institutions stayed on the sidelines of the hate group, not wanting to alienate part of their own base. It was encouraging to read that the Klan was turned away from holding a rally in 1922 in Indianapolis due to the resistance of the NAACP, although two years later a growing Klan got a permit and had 5,000 robed people marching down the streets to the circle.
Madison presents an interesting story of a long-time Klan leader, Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, a low life who drifted until he ended up in Indiana. Stephenson started out as a Socialist then tried being a Democrat before finding a home in the hate group. He learned he could make considerable money publishing the Fiery Cross and selling memberships in the Klan; the author estimated he made $2.5 million (in 2006 dollars) in 1923. He built a cult of personality despite his violent behavior to women. But he went too far when his partner died and, on her death bed, made a statement against him on April 14, 1925. After the problem of finding a fair jury, Stephenson was found guilty but expected a pardon from the governor who was well connected. After an investigation from the Feds, it was learned that Governor Jackson had received a $2,500 bribe; Jackson was also sent to prison. Newspapers covered the scandal, hurting the Republican candidates and helping to kill off the Klan in Indiana. Soon thereafter, no one wanted to admit they were part of this hate group.
Interesting enough, the Klan still maintained some involvement in the Republican party even into the 1950’s for a future governor, Governor Henry Schricker, gave Stephenson a pardon with the provision that he would leave the state. He didn’t – and ended up back in prison only to be given clemency in 1956 by yet another executive of the state, Governo George Craig.
There were some groups and individuals who fought the Klan, including Joseph Patrick O’Malley who was editor of the Indiana Catholic and Record, students at Notre Dame University who defied their school to protest the Klan when they were demonstrating nearby, and Louise and Rose Shapiro who changed the name of their establishment from American Grocery to Shapiro’s Kosher Foods to thumb their nose at the Klan – and hate. While most protestant churches stayed quiet including Methodists and Baptist. The Episcopal Diocese approved a resolution taking a stab at the Klan. Labor unions also often stayed quiet, but the Evansville AFL-CIO took aim at the Klan. The editor of Muncie Post-Democrat, George Dale, also opposed the Klan in his Republican town.
The Klan was swept away in the 1929 municipal elections. Two thirds of Indiana towns voted Democrats in office, including eight of the state’s largest cities replacing Republican mayors with Democrats.
The book closes with a quick chapter on how the Klan came back again in the 1960’s. This time the people under sheets did not pretend to be mainstream and put African Americans in their aim. Catholics had moved to the mainstream, thanks to many factors including a Catholic president. They also confronted more opposition, including the NAACP and the Urban League. More importantly, the FBI and police groups watched the KKK and brought the law down on them.
It was hard to read this book because it gets to the basic fiber of our neighbors: racism, sexism, antisemitic views. But it is what all of us should read to better understand human behavior.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
March 17, 2021As a child growing up in Indianapolis during the 1920s, John Bartlow Martin, later a noted freelance writer and political speechwriter, endured an unhappy childhood filled with family tragedies and setbacks, describing his Brookside Avenue home as living on “a mean street in a mean city.” One stark scene he retained into adulthood was the chilling memory of watching as a “seemingly endless parade of robed and hooded Klansmen marching around Monument Circle in Indianapolis in dead silence.”
Although Martin’s father, a contractor and a staunch Democrat, disliked everything about the Klan and refused to join, his mother shared some of the group’s prejudices. She patiently explained to her son that Catholics, as she had been taught by her parents, always built their churches on tops of hills to serve as “military strongpoints” when they attempted to take over the country...
Read Ray Boomhower's full review here: https://www.indianaauthorsawards.org/...
Although Martin’s father, a contractor and a staunch Democrat, disliked everything about the Klan and refused to join, his mother shared some of the group’s prejudices. She patiently explained to her son that Catholics, as she had been taught by her parents, always built their churches on tops of hills to serve as “military strongpoints” when they attempted to take over the country...
Read Ray Boomhower's full review here: https://www.indianaauthorsawards.org/...
October 8, 2022
Cerebral but short with a lot of pictures and worth your time- explains the rise and fall of the klan in the 1920’s and its resurgence in the 1960’s, as well as a short commentary on current issues.
December 12, 2020
This book is the most thorough account of the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana that I have read. The book discusses each iteration of the Klan and its prominence in white Protestant Christian culture, but Madison's primary focus, though, is on the 1920s iteration. It also discusses several infamous crimes against Black people that were not directly the result of Klan activity, yet were committed by people who were likely inspired by the right-wing propaganda that it peddled. Finally, it discusses thoroughly the fact that history, no matter how unpleasant, can not easily be forgotten. Just when Indiana was collectively hoping that it had finally left these painful chapters of history behind, it was all brought back to the forefront by the Indiana Legislature's passage, and the then-Governor Mike Pence's enthusiastic signing into law, of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that legalized discrimination against people who are LGBTQ+. Madison writes how the passage of a single law essentially made Indiana once again appear to the world to be a place of intolerance and bigotry. Despite the leaning of many Indiana residents to the ideological Right, the supporters of this law quickly learned that Indiana has changed since the years of the Klan's heyday. To their surprise, its residents reacted with utter disdain at the passage of the RFRA, and demanding that it be amended immediately, if not entirely repealed. Madison closes by writing that there has always been opposition to the prejudice that has been peddled by the Klan, and that there is hope that justice will eventually win over hate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2024
Re-read this for a project I'm working on at work.
As a contrast to Egan's very popular book, I actually find a lot of elements I like better in this one. Egan's book is written for a popular history/nonfiction narrative audience, whereas Madison's is written as a comprehensive overview that really hammers home two points: Klan history is Hoosier and American history, and the Klan was not an aberration that happened for no reason.
I think there's some bias on my part, but I found the conversation about comfort and myth to be a really great way to digest the Klan and its power over the people of the Midwest. I also thought it was interesting to showcase both the "first" Klan and the "modern" Klan alongside the 1920s version. It helps to showcase that this was not an isolated incident that we can just throw under the rug - it's something that has evolved over time and has affected several generations of Hoosiers.
I also loved that Madison said - we've heard enough about D.C. Stephenson. He doesn't need more words wasted on him. Let's focus on what his leadership provided to the organization, and you can find information on him elsewhere.
Overall, I recommend!
As a contrast to Egan's very popular book, I actually find a lot of elements I like better in this one. Egan's book is written for a popular history/nonfiction narrative audience, whereas Madison's is written as a comprehensive overview that really hammers home two points: Klan history is Hoosier and American history, and the Klan was not an aberration that happened for no reason.
I think there's some bias on my part, but I found the conversation about comfort and myth to be a really great way to digest the Klan and its power over the people of the Midwest. I also thought it was interesting to showcase both the "first" Klan and the "modern" Klan alongside the 1920s version. It helps to showcase that this was not an isolated incident that we can just throw under the rug - it's something that has evolved over time and has affected several generations of Hoosiers.
I also loved that Madison said - we've heard enough about D.C. Stephenson. He doesn't need more words wasted on him. Let's focus on what his leadership provided to the organization, and you can find information on him elsewhere.
Overall, I recommend!
May 4, 2021
This is a difficult book to read, which is why I recommend reading it in small bites at a time; however, it is an important book that I do recommend. I found that it helped me better understand where we are today with the white separatist movement. Not that I agree, but the Klan's propaganda tactics of misinformation sound much like those echoed today. Dr. Madison provides solid documentation as any history scholar would. The book doesn't paint a pretty picture of Indiana, but it could help others learn from the history.
September 2, 2023
This book took me forever to get through, mostly because every time I picked it up, I found more things I wanted to Google and learn more about. I've lived in Indiana my entire life, so I had some preconceived notions about the history of the klan in the state. For example, I was shocked to learn that Martinsville was never in fact the headquarters of the klan, just that it was a well-known sundown town. For people from Central Indiana, that's wild.
March 4, 2024
Chilling to read about the three iterations of the KKK - post-reformation, 1920s-30s, 1960s to present day. The book talked about how insidious actions became in later years and about the numbers of "educated" people that were involved with klan actions - judges, lawyers, politicians, doctors, etc. We haven't come as far as I thought we had. Need to continue being active working for DEI objectives in our organizations and engage with people of color in community groups.
January 19, 2024
I wanted to read this one because it deals with the Klan in Indiana, something I've heard about a lot. It was a bit scary how many Hoosiers joined, and how easy it was for the Klan to infiltrate local and state government. A lot of their rhetoric sounded like a certain criminal president...can't think of his name right now...
December 19, 2023
It's a pretty decent factual book with sources and it has good information...I just don't think it's very well written. As someone who reads a ton of nonfiction, this one felt like a chore to read.
Also includes a decent amount of photos which added to the story.
Also includes a decent amount of photos which added to the story.
September 30, 2020
There is more to be written.
December 10, 2020
Quite disturbing. I am a Hoosier, raised Catholic and white.
April 20, 2021
Good quick read. I had no idea of the history of this group in my own state.
June 4, 2021
Sad time in our state's history but apparently we, as a country, haven't learned from it.
August 10, 2021
Required reading for hoosiers
January 15, 2023
4/5
Interesting read on the Hoosier state’s history with the ‘Kookoos’. Gives new history on the hate seen within my home state.
Interesting read on the Hoosier state’s history with the ‘Kookoos’. Gives new history on the hate seen within my home state.
February 2, 2023
A heavy, yet quick academic read. Not a light read, especially given the subject matter.
January 21, 2024
Read this for a masters paper. Somewhat entry level but an enjoyable read and useful.
February 10, 2024
Buena introducción al mundo del KKK, vía su historia en la década del 20 en Indiana, pensando su centralidad en la historia de EEUU y sus ramificaciones en el supremacismo blanco hoy.
July 26, 2024
The author describes three main periods in which the Klan was prominent in society; after the Civil War, 1920s, and finally the 1960s. However, the 1920s were the primary subject of this book.
I found this book to be quite dry. The author relies on too many quotes to do his storytelling. Additionally, while the book is organized in a historical timeline manner, he seems to tell short stories or quotes said or done decades before or after the event took place.
Furthermore, the author talks about how politics was a major hindrance as well as an advantage to the Klan, depending on what period was being discussed. I found this quite interesting. However, as I mentioned, the author relies too much on what historical figures say rather than providing his unique narrative.
I found the historical aspects of the Klan to be more interesting during the Reconstruction Era, which is not what this book is about. For those interested in the KKK during the Reconstruction era, I highly recommend, “They called themselves the KKK” by Susan Campbell.
Some of the facts I found interesting were the different sets of motivations and tactics the Klan employed depending on the period. They were terrorizers and fiends during the post-civil war era yet acted more like vigilantes in the 1920s. Furthermore, during the 1920’s they seemed to despise Catholics while during the 1960s, African Americans were their main target.
I found this book to be quite dry. The author relies on too many quotes to do his storytelling. Additionally, while the book is organized in a historical timeline manner, he seems to tell short stories or quotes said or done decades before or after the event took place.
Furthermore, the author talks about how politics was a major hindrance as well as an advantage to the Klan, depending on what period was being discussed. I found this quite interesting. However, as I mentioned, the author relies too much on what historical figures say rather than providing his unique narrative.
I found the historical aspects of the Klan to be more interesting during the Reconstruction Era, which is not what this book is about. For those interested in the KKK during the Reconstruction era, I highly recommend, “They called themselves the KKK” by Susan Campbell.
Some of the facts I found interesting were the different sets of motivations and tactics the Klan employed depending on the period. They were terrorizers and fiends during the post-civil war era yet acted more like vigilantes in the 1920s. Furthermore, during the 1920’s they seemed to despise Catholics while during the 1960s, African Americans were their main target.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews