Another book related to race which is being published this month is THE SECOND COMING OF THE KKK by prize-winning historian Linda Gordon. This book deals with "The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition." Supported by extensive notes, this is a fascinating piece of scholarship which Gordon explains began as a chapter for another work on 20th century American social movements. Instead, she expanded it into a book and says, "Readers may find here similarities with some contemporary political movements, and may note the continuing influence of Klannish impulses and ideology." No doubt students are aware of the role of the Klan in the 1870's and even in the 1960's, but may be surprised to read about it in the 1920's, with emphasis on isolationism, anti-Semite and anti-Catholic views, as well as the millions of members at that time across the northern half of the United States.

Interesting look at the KKK of 1920s America and how it was very different than it is now remembered in the popular consciousness: not a collection of backwards male Southern rednecks, but a modern organization based in the urban north that included a significant percentage of female membership and used modern forms of communication to spread their hateful racist, nativist, religiously intolerant stance.

This is a very thoroughly researched account of the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S. during the 1920s. This is a very readable history of a very ugly part of American society which has unfortunately not gone away. Gordon focuses on this second iteration of the Klan as they expanded their list of targets and changed some of their recruiting tactics. In this period, the Klan were far more visible and atttempted to normalize their ideology. The klan would participate in parades and sponsor picnics and other family friendly activities which help to make their racist rhetoric appear less hateful and threatening. By softening their outer image they increased their membership and recruited a different type of person and managed to make their beliefs more attractive to those who would find outward violence unappealing. The second difference of the 1920s Klan was their location. No longer would the violent racism of the Klan be found only in the South. The Klan began recruiting members throughout the North and Midwest, proving that racism was not isolated to the former slave states. Third, the Klan now included Catholics and Jews in their lists of people that they wanted excluded from the United States. As a more diverse group of Europeans, those from Italy, Spain and Slavic countries began migrating to the U.S. the KKK expanded their ideology to include them as “undesirables” and started to focus their actions against them. The one major complaint that I have with this book is that Gordon tries to argue that during this period, the Klan was more focused on driving out Southeastern Europeans and less concerned with continuing their terror campaigns against African Americans. This is a misleading argument to make. Even though the Klan included more people in their list of targets, African Americans were never safe from Klan harassment. African Americans have always been target number one for the Klan.

Wow. What can I say? History repeats itself. I felt absolutely chilled in recognizing Trump's campaign in parts of this book, down to the word in some cases. This is the story of the KKK in the 1920s, told in a smart, well-researched and intelligent -- yet accessible -- way. I am not a historian, so many of the facts were completely eye-opening and fascinating to me. For example, did you know that the KKK was, in the 20s, a fairly socially acceptable membership organization on par with the Knights of Columbus? You will also learn plenty about the business of the KKK, how it functioned as a money-maker to its owners, and how the KKK made it up to the Midwest after its birth in the south during the 1800s.

Good lord. I was shocked and could not tear my eyes away -- the pages turned and turned! This is my favorite kind of nonfiction, and a timely arrival on the scene.

Thank you sincerely to Linda Gordon for writing this, and to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.