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A review by annmeyer
The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition by Linda Gordon
4.0
Very informative and accessible (easy-to-read, mechanically though not necessarily in regards to content, which does occasionally deal in specifics concerning racial and sexual violence) book for those interested in untangling the larger history of right-wing populism and vigilantism in the United States. Gordon tracks and explicates the rise of the second KKK, beginning in 1915 and burning out in the mid 1920s, with particular emphasis on the "100% American" movement's exclusion, hostility, and violence towards people of color, Jews, and Catholics -- virtually all non-white non-Protestants.
Overall, the work is very well-researched and attends to the dominant cultures and politics of the US in the 1920s, not just in the north and the south, but in the west too (Oregon, I'm looking at you). Gordon situates this second rendition of the KKK in the broader cultural and social movements against immigration and for nativism, patriotism, and nationalism, and offers limited contextualization of it within fascist movements in Europe and our present-day struggles with right-wing populism in politics.
Overall, the work is very well-researched and attends to the dominant cultures and politics of the US in the 1920s, not just in the north and the south, but in the west too (Oregon, I'm looking at you). Gordon situates this second rendition of the KKK in the broader cultural and social movements against immigration and for nativism, patriotism, and nationalism, and offers limited contextualization of it within fascist movements in Europe and our present-day struggles with right-wing populism in politics.