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The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition
A new Ku Klux Klan arose in the early 1920s, a less violent but equally virulent descendant of the relatively small, terrorist Klan of the 1870s. Unknown to most Americans today, this "second Klan" largely flourished above the Mason-Dixon Line—its army of four-to-six-million members spanning the continent from New Jersey to Oregon, its ideology of intolerance shaping the course of mainstream national politics throughout the twentieth century.
As prize-winning historian Linda Gordon demonstrates, the second Klan’s enemies included Catholics and Jews as well as African Americans. Its bigotry differed in intensity but not in kind from that of millions of other WASP Americans. Its membership, limited to white Protestant native-born citizens, was entirely respectable, drawn from small businesspeople, farmers, craftsmen, and professionals, and including about 1.5 million women. For many Klanspeople, membership simultaneously reflected a protest against an increasingly urban society and provided an entrée into the new middle class.
Never secret, this Klan recruited openly, through newspaper ads, in churches, and through extravagant mass "Americanism" pageants, often held on Independence Day. These "Klonvocations" drew tens of thousands and featured fireworks, airplane stunts, children’s games, and women’s bake-offs—and, of course, cross-burnings. The Klan even controlled about one hundred and fifty newspapers, as well as the Cavalier Motion Picture Company, dedicated to countering Hollywood’s "immoral"—and Jewish—influence. The Klan became a major political force, electing thousands to state offices and over one hundred to national offices, while successfully lobbying for the anti-immigration Reed-Johnson Act of 1924.
As Gordon shows, the themes of 1920s Klan ideology were not aberrant, but an indelible part of American history: its "100% Americanism" and fake news, broadcast by charismatic speakers, preachers, and columnists, became part of the national fabric. Its spokespeople vilified big-city liberals, "money-grubbing Jews," "Pope-worshipping Irish," and intellectuals for promoting jazz, drinking, and cars (because they provided the young with sexual privacy).
The Klan’s collapse in 1926 was no less flamboyant, done in by its leaders’ financial and sexual corruption, culminating in the conviction of Grand Dragon David Stephenson for raping and murdering his secretary, and chewing up parts of her body. Yet the Klan’s brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry lasted long after the organization’s decline, intensifying a fear of diversity that has long been a dominant undercurrent of American history.
Documenting what became the largest social movement of the first half of the twentieth century, The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan exposes the ancestry and helps explain the dangerous appeal of today’s welter of intolerance.
As prize-winning historian Linda Gordon demonstrates, the second Klan’s enemies included Catholics and Jews as well as African Americans. Its bigotry differed in intensity but not in kind from that of millions of other WASP Americans. Its membership, limited to white Protestant native-born citizens, was entirely respectable, drawn from small businesspeople, farmers, craftsmen, and professionals, and including about 1.5 million women. For many Klanspeople, membership simultaneously reflected a protest against an increasingly urban society and provided an entrée into the new middle class.
Never secret, this Klan recruited openly, through newspaper ads, in churches, and through extravagant mass "Americanism" pageants, often held on Independence Day. These "Klonvocations" drew tens of thousands and featured fireworks, airplane stunts, children’s games, and women’s bake-offs—and, of course, cross-burnings. The Klan even controlled about one hundred and fifty newspapers, as well as the Cavalier Motion Picture Company, dedicated to countering Hollywood’s "immoral"—and Jewish—influence. The Klan became a major political force, electing thousands to state offices and over one hundred to national offices, while successfully lobbying for the anti-immigration Reed-Johnson Act of 1924.
As Gordon shows, the themes of 1920s Klan ideology were not aberrant, but an indelible part of American history: its "100% Americanism" and fake news, broadcast by charismatic speakers, preachers, and columnists, became part of the national fabric. Its spokespeople vilified big-city liberals, "money-grubbing Jews," "Pope-worshipping Irish," and intellectuals for promoting jazz, drinking, and cars (because they provided the young with sexual privacy).
The Klan’s collapse in 1926 was no less flamboyant, done in by its leaders’ financial and sexual corruption, culminating in the conviction of Grand Dragon David Stephenson for raping and murdering his secretary, and chewing up parts of her body. Yet the Klan’s brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry lasted long after the organization’s decline, intensifying a fear of diversity that has long been a dominant undercurrent of American history.
Documenting what became the largest social movement of the first half of the twentieth century, The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan exposes the ancestry and helps explain the dangerous appeal of today’s welter of intolerance.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2017
About the author
Linda Gordon
40 books45 followersLinda Gordon is the Florence Kelley Professor of History at New York University. She is the author of numerous books and won the Bancroft Prize for The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. She lives in New York. "
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
February 15, 2019
I had hoped that by reading this book, I would gain somewhat of an understanding to why people are drawn to such virulent groups as the KKK. Whilst this didn't happen (perhaps there is no understanding to be found), I did learn many things about the "Second Coming" of the KKK. This occurred not in recent years but in the 1920s, had millions of members (WASPS of course!), and was much more acceptable than it is today. Seen as fashionable, respectable, and exciting, recruiters had little trouble rounding up new members for the Klan. Perhaps surprisingly to many people, they did not hate and discriminate against only blacks; Catholics, Jews, and non-Nordic immigrants were also in their line of fire. Anyone they saw as a threat to their self-defined "americanism" was not welcome in "their" America, and to be feared and hated. Sound familiar?
Linda Gordon does a remarkable job pulling together many facets of this second coming of the Klan, giving us an in-depth history and showing how immersed this movement was (is?) in evangelical Christianity and conservative American politics. Indeed, the Klan is rather like a religion itself. I was surprised to learn they not only have their own "holy" book, the Kloran, they also have their own rituals and ceremonies for funerals, weddings, and christenings. They have baptisms when one is "re-born" (echoing evangelical Christianity) into the Klan. They also have their own symbols, leader hierarchy, and membership fees.
Though membership sharply declined in the 1950s, we have unfortunately -- though unsurprisingly -- seen a new wave of white supremacy groups and mind-think in the USA in recent years. If anyone doubts this, they need look no further than the current "president" and his administration. Trump used populist rhetoric to win the admiration and unflinching loyalty of many, salting his rants and tweets with racist, bigoted, and xenophobic vitriol. Unfortunately, the Klannish spirit is alive and well. One can only hope that in the future, people will look back at this time and find it totally incomprehensible that anyone could have hated another person based solely on their skin colour, nation of origin, religion, sexuality, or gender identity. One can only hope that humanity will eventually progress from our tribal mentality and instead form a global mentality, embracing all humans and other sentient beings. One can only hope that in the future, the Klannish spirit will make as little sense to EVERYONE as it makes to some of us today.
Linda Gordon does a remarkable job pulling together many facets of this second coming of the Klan, giving us an in-depth history and showing how immersed this movement was (is?) in evangelical Christianity and conservative American politics. Indeed, the Klan is rather like a religion itself. I was surprised to learn they not only have their own "holy" book, the Kloran, they also have their own rituals and ceremonies for funerals, weddings, and christenings. They have baptisms when one is "re-born" (echoing evangelical Christianity) into the Klan. They also have their own symbols, leader hierarchy, and membership fees.
Though membership sharply declined in the 1950s, we have unfortunately -- though unsurprisingly -- seen a new wave of white supremacy groups and mind-think in the USA in recent years. If anyone doubts this, they need look no further than the current "president" and his administration. Trump used populist rhetoric to win the admiration and unflinching loyalty of many, salting his rants and tweets with racist, bigoted, and xenophobic vitriol. Unfortunately, the Klannish spirit is alive and well. One can only hope that in the future, people will look back at this time and find it totally incomprehensible that anyone could have hated another person based solely on their skin colour, nation of origin, religion, sexuality, or gender identity. One can only hope that humanity will eventually progress from our tribal mentality and instead form a global mentality, embracing all humans and other sentient beings. One can only hope that in the future, the Klannish spirit will make as little sense to EVERYONE as it makes to some of us today.
September 27, 2017
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.
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.
July 29, 2018
This analysis of the Second Ku Klux Klan is a decidedly mixed bag. Rather than a narrative history of the Klan's meteoric rise and fall, Gordon stresses its religious, political and cultural dimensions which made it successful, and which continue to animate American politics today. The book is often insightful in probing the origins and disturbing continuities of right wing politics: the Klan mustered backlash against Progressivism, evangelical Christianity, populist anger against elites, racial, religious and nativist resentments and others, that allowed them to become, albeit briefly, a dominant force in 1920s America. Gordon's analyses are compelling and, on a case-to-case basis, fascinating, especially the chapters elucidating the Klan's ties to previous far-right movements like the Know-Nothings and Prohibition Party, and another showing how conservative women sought opportunity within the Klan despite its strictures against their activism. Too often the book lapses into generalizations, unconvincing sociologist talk about gender roles (especially the chapter on Klan vigilantism) and broader social movements, along with some gaffes (repeating Woodrow Wilson's apocryphal Birth of a Nation quote) and errors (wondering why the Klan didn't ally with Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement when, um, they did exactly that?) belying her often formidable research. Interesting as a social study, incomplete as a history.
December 10, 2017
This is awfully good. The focus on the KKK in the north is interesting and sheds light on less explored territory, and the constant, ringing parallels to today's political scene are instructive, unsurprising, and horrifying. This study is relevant at all times, but it's particularly so particularly right now.
Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Co for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Co for the ARC.
May 16, 2019
The Second Coming of the KKK is an excellent account of the resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan during the 1920s, examined mostly in it's historical context but with some comparison to modern right-wing movements today. Mostly, the author let's the eerie similarities between the two speak for themselves. This was an a very interesting and informative book, and it is one that I would recommend.
August 9, 2019
The Second Coming of the KKK
is packed full of information about the second iteration of the KKK. Yet, Linda Gordon never allows this information come to life in an engaging way. While I understand that Gordon wanted to be relatively objective in her presentation, the interestingness of the subject matter seems to have been sanded down to its bare boned facts.
Descriptions of Klan ceremonies don’t give you a sense of what they were like, historical events don’t transport you to that time through the writing. I was left with one impression: either the second version of the KKK was crippling boring or it could’ve been presented better.
Descriptions of Klan ceremonies don’t give you a sense of what they were like, historical events don’t transport you to that time through the writing. I was left with one impression: either the second version of the KKK was crippling boring or it could’ve been presented better.
January 24, 2018
The KKK of the 1920s was disturbingly mainstream, disturbingly widespread, and offers uncomfortable parallels to our current political climate. The Klan of the twenties was protean, opportunistic, and decentralized, adapting smoothly to local mores and prejudices and always taking on an air of respectability (and intimidation). The most surprising and interesting aspect of the book was an extensive treatment of the role of women in the movement and the peculiar strain of feminism that grew up in the white (Anglo-Saxon Protestant) supremacist community.
November 29, 2017
Wow, I am glad I read this well researched book. This is a part of American history you will not learn in school. Fear and hate will always be with us, and there are those today who want to influence Americans with the same misguided strategy.
A very timely lesson from recent history.
A very timely lesson from recent history.
August 19, 2022
It has always been a feeling of shame for me knowing that my state (Indiana) was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity in the 1920s. While this book didn't lessen my shame, it at least spread it around a little bit. I was shocked to learn just how prevalent the Klan was throughout our country during that time, ranging from New England to the Pacific Northwest (and of course, the South). In fact, Oregon had as many members per capita as Indiana, and the famously liberal city of Portland had active Klan members!
To say that current right-wing populist movements mirror Klan ideology is an understatement. Their ideology in the '20s included six components: racism, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism. Five of the six (excluding temperance) are easily recognizable in every viewing of certain right-wing political rallies. The MAGA attitude of victimization is nothing but a continuance of the '20s Klan's hatred of Catholics, Jews, and people of color.
While this book was fascinating and educational, it was hard to read. Particularly sickening to me was the embrace of this hateful ideology by evangelical Christians, including Robert Shuler, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Bob Jones. In MAGA-world and white supremacist associations, everything old is new again.
While the actual Klan is all but defunct now, their attitude and ideology are still around. The book concludes: "The Klannish spirit—fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intellectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if they only try—lives on."
Remind you of anything?
Ultimately, this was an extremely frustrating read for me (no fault of the author!). It was very good and very well-researched but knowing that scores of people have learned nothing from our past is dismaying and disheartening to me. At least I know that, just as then, the percentage of these people among us hovers at around 30%. They are a vocal minority but they are a minority nonetheless. And, as always, it is up to the rest of us to denounce such ideology and label it exactly what it is: bigotry, hatred, and intimidation.
To say that current right-wing populist movements mirror Klan ideology is an understatement. Their ideology in the '20s included six components: racism, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism. Five of the six (excluding temperance) are easily recognizable in every viewing of certain right-wing political rallies. The MAGA attitude of victimization is nothing but a continuance of the '20s Klan's hatred of Catholics, Jews, and people of color.
While this book was fascinating and educational, it was hard to read. Particularly sickening to me was the embrace of this hateful ideology by evangelical Christians, including Robert Shuler, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Bob Jones. In MAGA-world and white supremacist associations, everything old is new again.
While the actual Klan is all but defunct now, their attitude and ideology are still around. The book concludes: "The Klannish spirit—fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intellectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if they only try—lives on."
Remind you of anything?
Ultimately, this was an extremely frustrating read for me (no fault of the author!). It was very good and very well-researched but knowing that scores of people have learned nothing from our past is dismaying and disheartening to me. At least I know that, just as then, the percentage of these people among us hovers at around 30%. They are a vocal minority but they are a minority nonetheless. And, as always, it is up to the rest of us to denounce such ideology and label it exactly what it is: bigotry, hatred, and intimidation.
Read
July 13, 2022"The pleasures of this ritual were, then, multiple: the participant was a member of a theatrical troupe, allowed a fantasy world alongside workaday life; he reaped the security and prestige of being an insider, enhanced by knowing that so many were excluded “aliens”; and, of course, he was nourished by a bonding that offered deliverance into a brotherhood as a respite from the loss of community that increasingly characterized modern life."
"In creating these compositions, the Klan was participating in a form of political entertainment that became popular in both the USSR and Nazi Germany in the 1930s: mass calisthenics and military parades."
"We can, however, note the members elected to high offices: sixteen senators, scores of congressmen (the Klan claimed seventy-five), and eleven governors, pretty much equally divided between Democrats and Republicans."
"By defining those in restricted racial, ethnic, religious, and ideological terms, it contributed both to myths of classlessness and to today’s notion of a vast middle class that includes all except the very rich and the very poor."
"Illiberal in their suspicion of dissent and the rights of minority groups, clinging to fictive images of their nations as homogeneous and destined to be so, resentful of cultural elites yet accepting the dominance of economic elites, they direct anger at big-city cosmopolitans and at groups outside their imagined homogeneity."
I decided to read this book after a glowing review from Paul Krugman, who described it as essential reading for trying to understand the current political moment. Linda Gordon's "Second Coming of the KKK" was useful both in seeing which strands of American reaction have remained constant, but, also importantly, which have fallen off. I also considered this useful reading for trying to understand interwar conservatism generally, as poignant comparisons areas points of difference can be made between the KKK, the Nazis, the Italian Fascists.
The "Second Klan" emerged after the success of the movie, Birth of a Nation, which found fans as far up as the White House where Woodrow Wilson famously screened it and attested to its general accuracy. As Gordon notes, the "Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s have six ancestors... racism, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism." Their overt racism hardly requires any explanation, except to say that its views were shared by a majority of Americans at the time. The 20s were an era of eugenics, with views of a racial hierarchy highly popular. Further, "As H. L. Mencken pointed out, “If the Klan is against the Jews, so are . . . three-quarters of the good clubs." Their nativism expressed itself both in a focus on "ideological patriotism" that the "right kind" of American must think a certain way, in its overwhelming opposition to more immigration (“While the American can out-work the alien, the alien can so far under-live the American as to force him out of all competitive labor.”), and in its hatred for Catholics, who were feared to be the thrall of the Pope in Rome. These nativist fears were naturally expressed in KKK education policy, as, for example. "the Klan became the first national organization to deny evolution and to sponsor state laws against teaching it, on the grounds that it was not only anti-Christian but also part of a foreign and Jewish conspiracy." The Klan gathered considerable strength from the Temperance Movement, oftentimes serving as the "militant wing" of the WTSU and the Anti-Saloon League. Even as Klan officials drank consistently, the Klan rank-and-file often collaborated with police organizations (often made-up of Klansmen) to shut down speakeasies and arrest distillers. The KKK, too, was nothing particularly unusual in a society that abounded with fraternal organizations (the Masons, the Knights of Columbus, the Odd Fellows, etc.). Often it was members of these organizations that would be targeted first whenever the KKK sought to set up a new local branch, as these people would be most familiar with the code phrases, occult "performances," club attire, and secret rules that would bind the Klan together. Christian evangelicalism, here, should best be understood as Protestant evangelicalism, as the KKK, as already noted, had a deep hatred for the Catholics. That said, the Catholics were unique among KKK enemies in that were they to convert to a Protestant faith, they could still become "naturalized" and join the "right" citizens. Ministers made up a healthy proportion of Klan membership, as they were exempt from paying dues, often spoke at Klan rallies, and received significant *public* donations from Klan members. Klan meetings were often held in churches, whether out of fear of being on the wrong side of the Klan or genuine approval of their vision of a white, Protestant America free of alcohol and vice. As Gordon states, "The Klan’s mobilization of evangelical ministers foreshadowed—and probably helped generate—the entry of Christian Right preachers into conservative politics fifty years later.
" For me, the populist approach made by the KKK is both the most interesting and the most relevant for understanding the current turn of the American Right. As far as their political program went, "Klanspeople did not oppose government welfare programs and did not support a large military. They did, however, prioritize campaigns against sexual vice more than Progressive Era reformers and, of course, called for greater enforcement of Prohibition." Klan activities were highly localized, so that in some cases they supported labor, and in other cases they supported business. On the whole, however, the Klan were vigorous proponents of the "profit incentive" and defenders of the system of government more-or-less as it existed. They were in support of a kind of "majoritarian democracy" in which citizen referendums decided the issues of the day, as these citizens were nearly always majority white and majority protestant.
The Klan was both private and public, with secret rituals for dues-paying members along with mass events for the public such as carnivals, picnics, and baseball games. In some ways, the Klan resembled a multi-level marketing scheme, with every level of Klan organization gaining a cut of the fee paid by new members. Some people at the time remarked that the main purpose of the Klan was simply to recruit more Klanspeople. A journalist, "Bohn guessed that “probably nine-tenths of them . . . do nothing but repeat the ritual, pass pious resolutions, and go home.” The rest, however, were the ones that engaged in vigilantism. This vigilantism was far more extreme in the South than the North, but it wasn't nonexistent. That said, "Klan vigilante actions were often legal" taking part with the explicit or implicit approval of law enforcement. Further, juries rarely if ever convicted Klansmen. Their violence wasn't only directed against religious and racial minorities, but industrial workers as well as the KKK "helped suppress the Agricultural Workers Organization, a union of wheat harvesters in Nebraska and an auxiliary of the IWW. It drove Wobblies out of several locations in the Pacific Northwest."
The Women's Ku Klux Klan, or WKKK, operated with similar rules, although instead of only being allowed to buy the white Klan robe from the "company" they could spend more for a Satin one. The WKK was highly popular, and "By November 1923, the WKKK claimed chapters in all forty-eight states. In Indiana, the state of greatest Klan strength, where the population was 97 percent white and Protestant, the WKKK boasted of 250,000 members; if true (not likely), this would have meant that 32 percent of the state’s native-born white Protestant women belonged." The WKKK were eager for political participation, and both championed rights for (white Protestant) women even as they engaged in Schlafly-esque arguments over the inherent differences between men and women and thus the differences they should both play. In their conception, just as a woman is essential for maintaining a happy/moral/clean home, so a woman should play the same role for the nation and "some feminisms challenge the gender order and the practice of identifying women primarily or even exclusively as mothers and wives; others, equally feminist, accept that gender order and promote women’s rights within it." That said, the WKKK had little to say about national issues, even as In one small but much-cited indication of WKKK feminism, in 1926 the Silver Lake, New Jersey, Klavern invited Margaret Sanger to speak about birth control." After the success of this speech, many other Klaverns invited Sanger, then a radical for her support for birth control.
Similar to other mass-movements predicated on nativism, status-anxiety, and masculinity, the petit bourgeoisie or "small businessmen, lower middle-class employees, and skilled workers constituted the majority of members in most locations." Specifically, "A large proportion were members of other fraternal orders, especially Masons" and " The single largest group were small businessmen, including farmers, and their employees, typically white-collar employees." while "The second-largest group, proportional to their numbers in the population, was probably ministers, particularly among Klan officers" although "Plenty of working-class men did join the Klan. Robert and Helen Lynd, in their iconic study of Muncie, Indiana, got the impression that businessmen were early joiners but that after a year or so “the Klan became largely a working class movement.”" Similarly to the Nazis, the KKK eschewed overt discussions of class or "class struggle" and "Its recruitment, rituals, and celebrations functioned, or tried, to obscure class differences within the Klan. It claimed to represent all “right” Americans."
Ultimately, the Second Klan collapsed under the weight of a series of scandals in 1927, having achieved a modicum of political power, the passage of strict immigration legislation at the federal level known as the "The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924", but "biggest Klan victory was equally consequential but less tangible: it influenced the public conversation, the universe of tolerable discourse." The Klan reignited the power of outright bigotry in politics, infusing it with religious fervor and a martial spirit. As Gordon writes, "The Klannish spirit—fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intellectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if they only try—lives on."
"In creating these compositions, the Klan was participating in a form of political entertainment that became popular in both the USSR and Nazi Germany in the 1930s: mass calisthenics and military parades."
"We can, however, note the members elected to high offices: sixteen senators, scores of congressmen (the Klan claimed seventy-five), and eleven governors, pretty much equally divided between Democrats and Republicans."
"By defining those in restricted racial, ethnic, religious, and ideological terms, it contributed both to myths of classlessness and to today’s notion of a vast middle class that includes all except the very rich and the very poor."
"Illiberal in their suspicion of dissent and the rights of minority groups, clinging to fictive images of their nations as homogeneous and destined to be so, resentful of cultural elites yet accepting the dominance of economic elites, they direct anger at big-city cosmopolitans and at groups outside their imagined homogeneity."
I decided to read this book after a glowing review from Paul Krugman, who described it as essential reading for trying to understand the current political moment. Linda Gordon's "Second Coming of the KKK" was useful both in seeing which strands of American reaction have remained constant, but, also importantly, which have fallen off. I also considered this useful reading for trying to understand interwar conservatism generally, as poignant comparisons areas points of difference can be made between the KKK, the Nazis, the Italian Fascists.
The "Second Klan" emerged after the success of the movie, Birth of a Nation, which found fans as far up as the White House where Woodrow Wilson famously screened it and attested to its general accuracy. As Gordon notes, the "Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s have six ancestors... racism, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism." Their overt racism hardly requires any explanation, except to say that its views were shared by a majority of Americans at the time. The 20s were an era of eugenics, with views of a racial hierarchy highly popular. Further, "As H. L. Mencken pointed out, “If the Klan is against the Jews, so are . . . three-quarters of the good clubs." Their nativism expressed itself both in a focus on "ideological patriotism" that the "right kind" of American must think a certain way, in its overwhelming opposition to more immigration (“While the American can out-work the alien, the alien can so far under-live the American as to force him out of all competitive labor.”), and in its hatred for Catholics, who were feared to be the thrall of the Pope in Rome. These nativist fears were naturally expressed in KKK education policy, as, for example. "the Klan became the first national organization to deny evolution and to sponsor state laws against teaching it, on the grounds that it was not only anti-Christian but also part of a foreign and Jewish conspiracy." The Klan gathered considerable strength from the Temperance Movement, oftentimes serving as the "militant wing" of the WTSU and the Anti-Saloon League. Even as Klan officials drank consistently, the Klan rank-and-file often collaborated with police organizations (often made-up of Klansmen) to shut down speakeasies and arrest distillers. The KKK, too, was nothing particularly unusual in a society that abounded with fraternal organizations (the Masons, the Knights of Columbus, the Odd Fellows, etc.). Often it was members of these organizations that would be targeted first whenever the KKK sought to set up a new local branch, as these people would be most familiar with the code phrases, occult "performances," club attire, and secret rules that would bind the Klan together. Christian evangelicalism, here, should best be understood as Protestant evangelicalism, as the KKK, as already noted, had a deep hatred for the Catholics. That said, the Catholics were unique among KKK enemies in that were they to convert to a Protestant faith, they could still become "naturalized" and join the "right" citizens. Ministers made up a healthy proportion of Klan membership, as they were exempt from paying dues, often spoke at Klan rallies, and received significant *public* donations from Klan members. Klan meetings were often held in churches, whether out of fear of being on the wrong side of the Klan or genuine approval of their vision of a white, Protestant America free of alcohol and vice. As Gordon states, "The Klan’s mobilization of evangelical ministers foreshadowed—and probably helped generate—the entry of Christian Right preachers into conservative politics fifty years later.
" For me, the populist approach made by the KKK is both the most interesting and the most relevant for understanding the current turn of the American Right. As far as their political program went, "Klanspeople did not oppose government welfare programs and did not support a large military. They did, however, prioritize campaigns against sexual vice more than Progressive Era reformers and, of course, called for greater enforcement of Prohibition." Klan activities were highly localized, so that in some cases they supported labor, and in other cases they supported business. On the whole, however, the Klan were vigorous proponents of the "profit incentive" and defenders of the system of government more-or-less as it existed. They were in support of a kind of "majoritarian democracy" in which citizen referendums decided the issues of the day, as these citizens were nearly always majority white and majority protestant.
The Klan was both private and public, with secret rituals for dues-paying members along with mass events for the public such as carnivals, picnics, and baseball games. In some ways, the Klan resembled a multi-level marketing scheme, with every level of Klan organization gaining a cut of the fee paid by new members. Some people at the time remarked that the main purpose of the Klan was simply to recruit more Klanspeople. A journalist, "Bohn guessed that “probably nine-tenths of them . . . do nothing but repeat the ritual, pass pious resolutions, and go home.” The rest, however, were the ones that engaged in vigilantism. This vigilantism was far more extreme in the South than the North, but it wasn't nonexistent. That said, "Klan vigilante actions were often legal" taking part with the explicit or implicit approval of law enforcement. Further, juries rarely if ever convicted Klansmen. Their violence wasn't only directed against religious and racial minorities, but industrial workers as well as the KKK "helped suppress the Agricultural Workers Organization, a union of wheat harvesters in Nebraska and an auxiliary of the IWW. It drove Wobblies out of several locations in the Pacific Northwest."
The Women's Ku Klux Klan, or WKKK, operated with similar rules, although instead of only being allowed to buy the white Klan robe from the "company" they could spend more for a Satin one. The WKK was highly popular, and "By November 1923, the WKKK claimed chapters in all forty-eight states. In Indiana, the state of greatest Klan strength, where the population was 97 percent white and Protestant, the WKKK boasted of 250,000 members; if true (not likely), this would have meant that 32 percent of the state’s native-born white Protestant women belonged." The WKKK were eager for political participation, and both championed rights for (white Protestant) women even as they engaged in Schlafly-esque arguments over the inherent differences between men and women and thus the differences they should both play. In their conception, just as a woman is essential for maintaining a happy/moral/clean home, so a woman should play the same role for the nation and "some feminisms challenge the gender order and the practice of identifying women primarily or even exclusively as mothers and wives; others, equally feminist, accept that gender order and promote women’s rights within it." That said, the WKKK had little to say about national issues, even as In one small but much-cited indication of WKKK feminism, in 1926 the Silver Lake, New Jersey, Klavern invited Margaret Sanger to speak about birth control." After the success of this speech, many other Klaverns invited Sanger, then a radical for her support for birth control.
Similar to other mass-movements predicated on nativism, status-anxiety, and masculinity, the petit bourgeoisie or "small businessmen, lower middle-class employees, and skilled workers constituted the majority of members in most locations." Specifically, "A large proportion were members of other fraternal orders, especially Masons" and " The single largest group were small businessmen, including farmers, and their employees, typically white-collar employees." while "The second-largest group, proportional to their numbers in the population, was probably ministers, particularly among Klan officers" although "Plenty of working-class men did join the Klan. Robert and Helen Lynd, in their iconic study of Muncie, Indiana, got the impression that businessmen were early joiners but that after a year or so “the Klan became largely a working class movement.”" Similarly to the Nazis, the KKK eschewed overt discussions of class or "class struggle" and "Its recruitment, rituals, and celebrations functioned, or tried, to obscure class differences within the Klan. It claimed to represent all “right” Americans."
Ultimately, the Second Klan collapsed under the weight of a series of scandals in 1927, having achieved a modicum of political power, the passage of strict immigration legislation at the federal level known as the "The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924", but "biggest Klan victory was equally consequential but less tangible: it influenced the public conversation, the universe of tolerable discourse." The Klan reignited the power of outright bigotry in politics, infusing it with religious fervor and a martial spirit. As Gordon writes, "The Klannish spirit—fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intellectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if they only try—lives on."
March 12, 2018
An outstanding book written about the second coming if the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The second form of the KKK was more of a northern phenomena as a reaction to increasing numbers of immigrants and the great migration of African Americans. The Midwest was a large area for KKK organizations. Indiana with its large white Protestant population has the largest group. Many members were solidly middle class and considered respectable members of society. The KKK organized social get-togethers,community fairs, had many members in state and local governments and attempted to take over federal government. The film Birth Of a Nation was hugely popular and made the KKK hero’s and belonging as a badge of manhood. Women members prided themselves as goddesses and damsels in distress as well as helpers. Hazing was a requirement for both male and female members and new residents were often sent a questionnaire to evaluate potential membership. The KKK was basically a business and run like one. There were listened klan wear, and desired items members wanted. A doctor, William Joesph Simmons was inspired to recreate the KKK after seeing The Birth of a Nation and created a group he licensed and planned it as a group to to fight communism, socialism, a form of globalism that led to WWI, and other - isms. He wanted the KKK to be respectful and barred rough necks, rowdies or yellow streaks. He said he wanted Real Men. While he made considerable money from raising the Klan, it collapsed in 1926 under his stewardship while he and other leaders showed their insane depraved selves, including rape and abuse of women. In the meantime, they were able to change laws against immigration, terrorized Irish, Jews, Blacks and Asians. Businesses were boycotted and destroyed, people were driven out. While the KKK promoted conservative values, they were savvy at using radio, movies, advertising and new technology to spread their hate. They denied science but made use of the benefits. Linda Gordon, the author, was writing a larger book which she continues to make but decided to release this portion of the book because the rise of the Alt-Right last year. There are many parallels. Important information, well researched.
June 7, 2018
The first Klu Klux Klan only lasted about 6 years, and left behind a trail of fire and blood. The second Klan reemerged 44 years later in 1915 with quite a bit of success. It has been described as a "less violent but equally virulent" organization and also as a "giant, perverse pyramid scheme. It is very true that the Klan was a despicably racist and bigoted group and ideologically, morally, and theologically bankrupt. That said, it is a myth to suppose that the second Klan was an extremely marginal minority hiding on the fringes of society. Between 1920 and 1924, membership increased by a third, with approximately 2,000,000 new members. Klan members constituted at least 5% of the U.S. population at their peak in the 1920s, and they held disproportional political influence. They scored a major political victory in 1924, when a law instituting immigration quotas was passed. They elected many politicians, including senators, congressmen, and governors. Also a myth is the supposition that the Klan was limited to the deep south. The states with the most Klan members per capita in the 1920s were Oregon and Indiana. Embedded in the second Klan, were at times odd mixes of ideologies. Within the second Klan there are to be found some fascinating strands of "progressive" ideas, perhaps a surprising find in a group that one might be tempted to view as thoroughly "regressive". Today, there are deeply disturbing movements towards nativism, racism, and other ideologies which are highly damaging to civil society. Perhaps this study can be helpful in understanding both the past and the present. Though this book has some flaws (it casts some aspersions on unrelated groups which, in my mind, are unjustified and unfair), overall this is a very informative and engaging study. Most of the information the book presents is well structured, thorough, and well-documented. The author is trying to bring out the organization as it was, and is not afraid to show a complicated or contradictory picture when it is justified. This lends credibility and is valuable.
April 9, 2018
I’d say 3.5 out of 5. Gordon’s history is strong and her prose incredibly clear and compelling. My lower rating rests more in the sense that I am not quite accustomed to reading a general history vs. an academic history. Plus my dissertation overlapped with the era and topics that she touched on, so what she hit on didn’t feel particularly revelatory. In fact because of my overfamiliarity and her general approach, it felt somewhat shallow. I wanted her to push more to assert a greater argument.
For example, I think she sets up a great an important distinction between this second wave and the earlier iteration of the Klan following Reconstruction. However, she does less to contextualize it in terms of the third Klan that arose later. She asserts how common place the Klan was and how it served to bring some respectability or fulfill social/cultural aspirational goals of some initiates. But how did the second Klan get to the third? She hits on some scandals. And she argued that reaching their primary goal with the Johnson Reed act left it goal-less. But it would have been nice how other things shifted to alter people’s perception of the Klan.
Some of her best arguments touch on gender and the Klan: both the activities of women and why a threat to masculinity of the time period contributed to a desire for men to commit acts of violence. It’s a very great read.
For example, I think she sets up a great an important distinction between this second wave and the earlier iteration of the Klan following Reconstruction. However, she does less to contextualize it in terms of the third Klan that arose later. She asserts how common place the Klan was and how it served to bring some respectability or fulfill social/cultural aspirational goals of some initiates. But how did the second Klan get to the third? She hits on some scandals. And she argued that reaching their primary goal with the Johnson Reed act left it goal-less. But it would have been nice how other things shifted to alter people’s perception of the Klan.
Some of her best arguments touch on gender and the Klan: both the activities of women and why a threat to masculinity of the time period contributed to a desire for men to commit acts of violence. It’s a very great read.
December 16, 2017
Interesting - especially in the similarity in methods used by the KKK of the 1920s — and today’s evangelicalism. Specifically:
—Part of the Klan’s genius lay in enabling men to imagine themselves warriors even as they behaved peaceably.
—Klanspeople had to visualize themselves as soldiers defending against threats, and in doing so created belief in those threats.
—Among The Klan’s emotional appeals, gendered messages to men had particular power. Manliness was strength, womenliness weakness.
Author helped me to further understand why 80% of evangelicals voted for Trump...and continue to view women as unequal members of “the church.”
—Part of the Klan’s genius lay in enabling men to imagine themselves warriors even as they behaved peaceably.
—Klanspeople had to visualize themselves as soldiers defending against threats, and in doing so created belief in those threats.
—Among The Klan’s emotional appeals, gendered messages to men had particular power. Manliness was strength, womenliness weakness.
Author helped me to further understand why 80% of evangelicals voted for Trump...and continue to view women as unequal members of “the church.”
March 15, 2018
Seemed like appropriate reading for the times. I think the most interesting takeaway was the idea that the second wave of the KKK was a force that helped bring together members of the middle and working classes, and helped some define themselves as such. That, and I wished the chapter on women and the KKK was longer. That and this, which we all need to remind ourselves of: "Readers who have not already done so must rid themselves of notions of that women's politics are always kinder, gentler, and less racist than men's." Amen.
September 14, 2018
The Klan of the 1920s was a political power house that did most of its work not through violent action, but through boycotts of "undesirable" businesses and by aligning themselves with many of the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitism beliefs of the time. Gordon does a good job breaking down all the ways the 1920s Klan functioned and looks specifically at how their tactics worked through a variety of lenses.
February 6, 2018
This is a solid work of history-- very well-researched, very readable, totally mind-boggling. I wished, a bit, that Gordon had picked a single story about this era to really focus on (there are many many threads running in many different directions), but the picture she paints in aggregate is pretty startling-- and frighteningly relevant-- all the same.
June 5, 2019
If I don't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say it. So I won't. But I do give props to the author for giving a relatively honest view of the KKK in the 1920s. Fair solid book, would not read again but would suggest to someone who is looking for a historical context to the KKK and its history.
October 3, 2020
The Second Coming of the KKK is about the 1920s revitalization and flourishing of the Ku Klux Klan, the factors that led to it, the aspects that appealed to the wide membership, and the way it collapsed, due to the sensational crimes of the leadership, most especially Grand Dragon David Stephenson, who raped and murdered his secretary.
I listened to the audiobook and it's not a great reading -- the reader is very jerky and pauses after weird words. But it's a good book, and I'm glad I read it. It was written post-2016 election and has a close eye on populism and racism through that lens, while not allowing itself to get sucked into forcing a one to one comparison.
The aspects I found most interesting were the way the KKK was revitalized and marketed -- and I do mean marketed, the pair that did most of the footwork to bring it back were marketers and ran it like any business, and got very rich off it, the way women were part of the Klan, and how the messaging changed from area to area, to better meet the demographics present.
So: the marketing. The KKK was basically run like any pyramid scheme -- the joining fee was pretty high, and 50% of it went to the person who signed the new person up, 30% went to the head of the local Klavern, and 20% to the national organization. Klavern heads could make a pretty penny without much work, and the last to get in on it were out of luck. A piece of information that made me cackle laugh as I was walking my dog is that they kept the patterns for robes secret (or copyrighted? I can't recall exactly, but they limited access) so that men would have to buy from the Klan, rather than having their wives make them. An interesting aspect on that was the centrality of the theatricality of Klan rituals -- Gordon makes it pretty clear that the strict rituals and chants were way more about the bonding experience than the actual impression. At their best they'd be super impressive and scary and occult! As they normally were, it was basically doing theater together with some buddies in a time before easily available entertainment.
The participation of women in the Klan took up a large part of the book -- if I had a hard copy, I'd check page count, but it felt like more than half? Women in conservative movements are a pet topic of mine, so I was happy with the focus, but I do always get a little dubious about the focus on women's sins in movements led, run, and maintained by men and on a platform of (white) male supremacy. There were a few sections I found particularly interesting -- the first was Klan women's interest in birth control, and the time they invited Margaret Sanger to talk to them (Gordon made a note that this didn't reflect on Sanger's beliefs, because she had a rule about speaking to anyone who asked). The other was the women's auxiliary started without men's permission in Oregon (Portland, I think, specifically?) and when the men demanded the women give up their charter, the women beat the crap out of the guy who came to their meeting and publicized it widely. Klanswomen were astride a line of advocating heavily for women to stay in the home and serve their man while being very active outside of the home and frequently trying to buck male authority. I mean, obviously they chose racism over women's rights but it's an interesting tension, and Gordon explored it in as much detail as she could -- there were several moments where she said "the research just isn't there."
The last point I wanted to hit was the messaging -- Portland featured heavily, as one of the major strongholds of the Klan. Gordon called Oregon the most racist in the North, and possibly just altogether, and went over how messaging changed from location to location to match local demographics. In the South, where there's a larger black population, anti-black racism was the order of the day. In the North, anti-immigrant/Catholic/Jewish anxieties were the way the Klan got a foothold.
Overall I really enjoyed it -- I found it pretty detailed and comprehensive and definitely learned a lot. I thought it was well structured and the information was presented in a way that was easy to absorb, despite the reading not doing anything for my comprehension.
I listened to the audiobook and it's not a great reading -- the reader is very jerky and pauses after weird words. But it's a good book, and I'm glad I read it. It was written post-2016 election and has a close eye on populism and racism through that lens, while not allowing itself to get sucked into forcing a one to one comparison.
The aspects I found most interesting were the way the KKK was revitalized and marketed -- and I do mean marketed, the pair that did most of the footwork to bring it back were marketers and ran it like any business, and got very rich off it, the way women were part of the Klan, and how the messaging changed from area to area, to better meet the demographics present.
So: the marketing. The KKK was basically run like any pyramid scheme -- the joining fee was pretty high, and 50% of it went to the person who signed the new person up, 30% went to the head of the local Klavern, and 20% to the national organization. Klavern heads could make a pretty penny without much work, and the last to get in on it were out of luck. A piece of information that made me cackle laugh as I was walking my dog is that they kept the patterns for robes secret (or copyrighted? I can't recall exactly, but they limited access) so that men would have to buy from the Klan, rather than having their wives make them. An interesting aspect on that was the centrality of the theatricality of Klan rituals -- Gordon makes it pretty clear that the strict rituals and chants were way more about the bonding experience than the actual impression. At their best they'd be super impressive and scary and occult! As they normally were, it was basically doing theater together with some buddies in a time before easily available entertainment.
The participation of women in the Klan took up a large part of the book -- if I had a hard copy, I'd check page count, but it felt like more than half? Women in conservative movements are a pet topic of mine, so I was happy with the focus, but I do always get a little dubious about the focus on women's sins in movements led, run, and maintained by men and on a platform of (white) male supremacy. There were a few sections I found particularly interesting -- the first was Klan women's interest in birth control, and the time they invited Margaret Sanger to talk to them (Gordon made a note that this didn't reflect on Sanger's beliefs, because she had a rule about speaking to anyone who asked). The other was the women's auxiliary started without men's permission in Oregon (Portland, I think, specifically?) and when the men demanded the women give up their charter, the women beat the crap out of the guy who came to their meeting and publicized it widely. Klanswomen were astride a line of advocating heavily for women to stay in the home and serve their man while being very active outside of the home and frequently trying to buck male authority. I mean, obviously they chose racism over women's rights but it's an interesting tension, and Gordon explored it in as much detail as she could -- there were several moments where she said "the research just isn't there."
The last point I wanted to hit was the messaging -- Portland featured heavily, as one of the major strongholds of the Klan. Gordon called Oregon the most racist in the North, and possibly just altogether, and went over how messaging changed from location to location to match local demographics. In the South, where there's a larger black population, anti-black racism was the order of the day. In the North, anti-immigrant/Catholic/Jewish anxieties were the way the Klan got a foothold.
Overall I really enjoyed it -- I found it pretty detailed and comprehensive and definitely learned a lot. I thought it was well structured and the information was presented in a way that was easy to absorb, despite the reading not doing anything for my comprehension.
March 24, 2018
This is an important book that will interest anybody who studies American history. Gordon offers original research and insightful analysis of the "Second Wave" of the Klan. I particularly recommend this book to Dinesh D'Souza.
The "Second Wave" of the Klan can be distinguished from the "First" and "Third" waves. The first was born during Reconstruction and targeted Freedmen and Republicans (i.e., "carpetbaggers"). This wave didn't last very long because national Republicans quickly withdrew their promises to and protection of newly freed slaves in the South, allowing Southern whites, virtually all Democrats, to impose "Jim Crow" laws that persisted for nearly seventy years, and to inflict violent oppression of dissent and upon dissenters. This abandonment began with the Grant (Republican) administration (see Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 ).
The "Third Wave" came after World War II, in response to the postwar civil rights movement. It was also violent, mostly Democratic, and targeted African Americans and white civil rights workers. Both the first and third waves were essentially Southern affairs, although sizeable white majorities in the North and West shared Southerners' antipathy toward people of color. Segregation was as prevalent in California and Massachusetts as it was in Mississippi. Elements of this third wave persist today in various "alt-right" social media and right-wing European political parties.
The "Second Wave," by contrast, was a truly national movement, with Klaverns from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and everywhere in between. It lasted only a few years, approximately 1921 to 1927 or thereabouts, but it was a powerful force in both national and state and local politics while it lasted. The Northern Klan was not particularly violent, and both North and South targeted Catholics, Jews, "wets" (i.e., anti-Prohibitionists), and "aliens," as well as African Americans. Outside of the South, blacks were few in number and so thoroughly oppressed that they posed little threat to white supremacy in the period. Local conditions and circumstances dictated the targets of Klan ire; Gordon notes that "In the 1920s Oregon [her native state], 'race relations' meant Japanese-white relations" (p. 146).
Gordon's research can be construed to contradict much of the scurrilous, vicious polemics of Dinesh D'Souza ( The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left ), who argues that racism and genocide were not the fault of "America" (the titular Big Lie) but rather "Democrats and liberals." Indeed, D'Souza claims that Democratic racism and "Jim Crow" both predate and provided inspiration for European fascists and the Nazis. Gordon, however, persuasively places the second Klan in the mainstream of American politics, identifying six "ancestors" of the organization, all of which were deeply embedded in American political culture and history: the first Ku Klux Klan, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism (p. 198). All of these would have existed even if the second Klan had not; the second Klan, however, could not have existed without these precursors.
Democrats bear a great responsibility for the second Klan, but they were not alone. Gordon notes that Klan members elected to high office included "sixteen senators, scores of congressmen (the Klan claimed seventy-five), and eleven governors" and that they were "pretty much equally divided between Democrats and Republicans" (p. 164, emphasis added; see also p. 170). The Klan worked to nominate a sympathetic candidate for president at the 1924 Democratic Convention, but they were only narrowly successful. It took an "absurd 103 ballots with sixty different candidates over sixteen days" to select the winner, a virtually unknown John W. Davis (p. 169). Davis' position on the Klan was uncertain, but he was the only candidate who could muster the two-thirds vote necessary for nomination. An anti-Klan resolution was offered at the 1924 convention and was defeated by a vote of "542.15 in favor, 546.15 against" (Ibid.). Four years later, at the 1928 Democratic Convention, the party nominated Al Smith, a Catholic, "wet," and virulent anti-Klansman, something conveniently ignored by D'Souza. Meanwhile, no Republican president in the 1920s ever condemned the Klan (p. 165), which claimed President Harding (Republican) as a member (so, too--briefly--was Harry S Truman, Democrat; Ibid). Klansman Albert Johnson, a Republican from Washington State, authored the explicitly racist Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1925 (p. 195). The second Klan was a bipartisan movement.
Gordon argues that the label, "fascist," has little coherence or explanatory value for the right-wing movements of the 1920s. Nevertheless, the second Klan bears obvious resemblance to European fascists and the Nazis, although it differs from those movements in profound ways. Klansmen, fascists, and Nazis were anti-Semitic, anti-communist, nativist, and prone to violence (except for the Northern Klan; nationally, the Klan denied that it was violent at all). They all liked costumes and huge public rallies. That's pretty much were the similarities end. Italian Fascists and Nazis drew their authority from the state or the "people," while the Klan claimed authority from the Bible; it was strongly evangelical and Christian. Evangelicals were a specific target of Mussolini's intolerance, who courted and came to rely on the Roman Catholic Church for political support (see David I. Kertzer, The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe ). There were few enemies move powerful and evil than the Pope in the eyes of the second Klan.
Fascists and Nazis despised and outlawed secret, fraternal organizations (which offered alternative allegiances), while the second Klan was fundamentally a secret, fraternal organization that drew members from other secretive fraternal organizations, especially Masons (the Scottish Rite) and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Italian fascists and Nazis used violence to overturn existing political orders, while the second Klan revered the U.S. Constitution and the flag and pursued lawful, electoral and lobbying strategies of change. Fascists and Nazis were authoritarian, while the second Klan strongly supported direct democracy and used initiatives and referenda to enact laws. Fascists and Nazis embraced (non-Jewish) science and technology and indeed supported new discoveries with generous state funding. The second Klan was deeply suspicious of science, especially evolution, and espoused contempt for "experts" and intellectuals generally.
The second Klan was a respected--if not respectable--middle class, professional fraternity that offered economic and political mobility for its members. Most Americans either supported the Klan or so feared its power as to feign acceptance. It was the brave person, indeed, who openly stood up to the Klan in the 1920s. Politically and socially, much of its creed persists to this day even though the formal organizations are long gone. As Gordon concludes:
The "Second Wave" of the Klan can be distinguished from the "First" and "Third" waves. The first was born during Reconstruction and targeted Freedmen and Republicans (i.e., "carpetbaggers"). This wave didn't last very long because national Republicans quickly withdrew their promises to and protection of newly freed slaves in the South, allowing Southern whites, virtually all Democrats, to impose "Jim Crow" laws that persisted for nearly seventy years, and to inflict violent oppression of dissent and upon dissenters. This abandonment began with the Grant (Republican) administration (see Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 ).
The "Third Wave" came after World War II, in response to the postwar civil rights movement. It was also violent, mostly Democratic, and targeted African Americans and white civil rights workers. Both the first and third waves were essentially Southern affairs, although sizeable white majorities in the North and West shared Southerners' antipathy toward people of color. Segregation was as prevalent in California and Massachusetts as it was in Mississippi. Elements of this third wave persist today in various "alt-right" social media and right-wing European political parties.
The "Second Wave," by contrast, was a truly national movement, with Klaverns from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and everywhere in between. It lasted only a few years, approximately 1921 to 1927 or thereabouts, but it was a powerful force in both national and state and local politics while it lasted. The Northern Klan was not particularly violent, and both North and South targeted Catholics, Jews, "wets" (i.e., anti-Prohibitionists), and "aliens," as well as African Americans. Outside of the South, blacks were few in number and so thoroughly oppressed that they posed little threat to white supremacy in the period. Local conditions and circumstances dictated the targets of Klan ire; Gordon notes that "In the 1920s Oregon [her native state], 'race relations' meant Japanese-white relations" (p. 146).
Gordon's research can be construed to contradict much of the scurrilous, vicious polemics of Dinesh D'Souza ( The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left ), who argues that racism and genocide were not the fault of "America" (the titular Big Lie) but rather "Democrats and liberals." Indeed, D'Souza claims that Democratic racism and "Jim Crow" both predate and provided inspiration for European fascists and the Nazis. Gordon, however, persuasively places the second Klan in the mainstream of American politics, identifying six "ancestors" of the organization, all of which were deeply embedded in American political culture and history: the first Ku Klux Klan, nativism, temperance, fraternalism, Christian evangelicalism, and populism (p. 198). All of these would have existed even if the second Klan had not; the second Klan, however, could not have existed without these precursors.
Democrats bear a great responsibility for the second Klan, but they were not alone. Gordon notes that Klan members elected to high office included "sixteen senators, scores of congressmen (the Klan claimed seventy-five), and eleven governors" and that they were "pretty much equally divided between Democrats and Republicans" (p. 164, emphasis added; see also p. 170). The Klan worked to nominate a sympathetic candidate for president at the 1924 Democratic Convention, but they were only narrowly successful. It took an "absurd 103 ballots with sixty different candidates over sixteen days" to select the winner, a virtually unknown John W. Davis (p. 169). Davis' position on the Klan was uncertain, but he was the only candidate who could muster the two-thirds vote necessary for nomination. An anti-Klan resolution was offered at the 1924 convention and was defeated by a vote of "542.15 in favor, 546.15 against" (Ibid.). Four years later, at the 1928 Democratic Convention, the party nominated Al Smith, a Catholic, "wet," and virulent anti-Klansman, something conveniently ignored by D'Souza. Meanwhile, no Republican president in the 1920s ever condemned the Klan (p. 165), which claimed President Harding (Republican) as a member (so, too--briefly--was Harry S Truman, Democrat; Ibid). Klansman Albert Johnson, a Republican from Washington State, authored the explicitly racist Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1925 (p. 195). The second Klan was a bipartisan movement.
Gordon argues that the label, "fascist," has little coherence or explanatory value for the right-wing movements of the 1920s. Nevertheless, the second Klan bears obvious resemblance to European fascists and the Nazis, although it differs from those movements in profound ways. Klansmen, fascists, and Nazis were anti-Semitic, anti-communist, nativist, and prone to violence (except for the Northern Klan; nationally, the Klan denied that it was violent at all). They all liked costumes and huge public rallies. That's pretty much were the similarities end. Italian Fascists and Nazis drew their authority from the state or the "people," while the Klan claimed authority from the Bible; it was strongly evangelical and Christian. Evangelicals were a specific target of Mussolini's intolerance, who courted and came to rely on the Roman Catholic Church for political support (see David I. Kertzer, The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe ). There were few enemies move powerful and evil than the Pope in the eyes of the second Klan.
Fascists and Nazis despised and outlawed secret, fraternal organizations (which offered alternative allegiances), while the second Klan was fundamentally a secret, fraternal organization that drew members from other secretive fraternal organizations, especially Masons (the Scottish Rite) and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Italian fascists and Nazis used violence to overturn existing political orders, while the second Klan revered the U.S. Constitution and the flag and pursued lawful, electoral and lobbying strategies of change. Fascists and Nazis were authoritarian, while the second Klan strongly supported direct democracy and used initiatives and referenda to enact laws. Fascists and Nazis embraced (non-Jewish) science and technology and indeed supported new discoveries with generous state funding. The second Klan was deeply suspicious of science, especially evolution, and espoused contempt for "experts" and intellectuals generally.
The second Klan was a respected--if not respectable--middle class, professional fraternity that offered economic and political mobility for its members. Most Americans either supported the Klan or so feared its power as to feign acceptance. It was the brave person, indeed, who openly stood up to the Klan in the 1920s. Politically and socially, much of its creed persists to this day even though the formal organizations are long gone. As Gordon concludes:
The Klannish spirit--fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intellectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if they only try--lives on. (p. 209)I can't think of a better description of contemporary American politics. It's depressing.
October 24, 2023
“The Klannish spirit- fearful, angry, gullible to sensationalist falsehoods, in thrall to demagogic leaders and abusive language, hostile to science and intel. lectuals, committed to the dream that everyone can be a success in business if only they try lives on”
In the scheme of things this point is not of the utmost importance but one thing I took away from this book is how silly people joining the Klan was. Everything from the names they used to the rituals, to adding K to every word is idiotic, immature, and pathetic.
Overall, I felt the book was good but repetitive. Very focused on the religious nature of the KKK and especially the anti Catholic sentiment. If you knew nothing about the KKK before this book you would think their main priority was anti-Catholic.
In the scheme of things this point is not of the utmost importance but one thing I took away from this book is how silly people joining the Klan was. Everything from the names they used to the rituals, to adding K to every word is idiotic, immature, and pathetic.
Overall, I felt the book was good but repetitive. Very focused on the religious nature of the KKK and especially the anti Catholic sentiment. If you knew nothing about the KKK before this book you would think their main priority was anti-Catholic.
July 6, 2021
The Harry Truman quote, "the only thing new in the world is the history you do not know" came to mind reading this account of the political machine and social movement that flourished between 1915 and 1927 all over the United States.
Truman himself was a member when he thought it was only a political organization, and quit when he learned he was expected to break of his friendships with Catholics [page 165].
Linda Gordon is a companionable writer, inserting a dash of first-person perspective into a well-footnoted and reliable piece. The "American Political Tradition" of the title is well covered by describing the underlying sources and structures of the "second KKK," which are so familiar today that they need little emphasis.
Truman himself was a member when he thought it was only a political organization, and quit when he learned he was expected to break of his friendships with Catholics [page 165].
Linda Gordon is a companionable writer, inserting a dash of first-person perspective into a well-footnoted and reliable piece. The "American Political Tradition" of the title is well covered by describing the underlying sources and structures of the "second KKK," which are so familiar today that they need little emphasis.
January 27, 2022
I find it important that we never forget our history. What gets me is how much the 1920s are too close to the 2020s. We haven’t learned much in 100 years. There is a lot of history here I never learned, and it should be taught. What the KKK did in 1923 still shapes our nation. The other reason was to continue to round out my detective novel with how it was in the 1920s and the pushback on immigration and other social issues. We can’t forget how easy it is for so many people to get behind such an organization for what they think is the right reasons because they have great propaganda machines. Still, I hope can capture the feel of the 1920s for all angels, but the in depth study of an organization of hate is equally important.
September 5, 2022
Gordon's book is a remarkably detailed and informative work for being only 209 pages (not including appendices, glossary and notes). I read Gordon's work after reading James H. Madison's "The Ku Klux Klan In The Heartland", a book dealing with the same period but that focuses specifically on the history of the Klan in Indiana. Both books taken individually are excellent at providing insight into one of America's most effective and most alarming Right Wing populist movements, the "Second Coming Of The KKK" in the 1920's. They're even better when read together.
(Refer to my separate review on Madison's book.)
Even though we're on the threshold of the 100th anniversary of this movement's beginning in Indiana in December of 1922, this isn't-to my mind-ancient history. My Hoosier grandparents were young back then, my father a toddler. I can't help but notice that though the Klan has degraded throughout the decades, the ideology that motivated its members is thriving today: It was hyper-nationalist, isolationist, anti-immigrant, racist--and often suffused with an exclusionary and bigoted brand of Christianity. Some things never change.
The Klan of the 1920's elected members to Congress, state assemblies, governorships. Judges, police, and other government functionaries were recruited as members. It's political hold on the country was significant, if brief. It was a multi-million dollar movement that enriched its founders and leaders, and in spite of its moral sentiments, corruption was rife within the organization from the outset.
For the reader engaged in current politics, this particular piece of political history is one they'll want to explore. Gordon's book is perfect for that.
(Refer to my separate review on Madison's book.)
Even though we're on the threshold of the 100th anniversary of this movement's beginning in Indiana in December of 1922, this isn't-to my mind-ancient history. My Hoosier grandparents were young back then, my father a toddler. I can't help but notice that though the Klan has degraded throughout the decades, the ideology that motivated its members is thriving today: It was hyper-nationalist, isolationist, anti-immigrant, racist--and often suffused with an exclusionary and bigoted brand of Christianity. Some things never change.
The Klan of the 1920's elected members to Congress, state assemblies, governorships. Judges, police, and other government functionaries were recruited as members. It's political hold on the country was significant, if brief. It was a multi-million dollar movement that enriched its founders and leaders, and in spite of its moral sentiments, corruption was rife within the organization from the outset.
For the reader engaged in current politics, this particular piece of political history is one they'll want to explore. Gordon's book is perfect for that.
December 2, 2023
I read this purely for history class. It was a good read though a hard one at that. I don’t want to go too in depth with this one, just that if you are a historian fan and like to mull over about these hard times of the past, I recommend giving this a read.
January 28, 2023
This was a solid book that I am glad I read as it further disgusted me as to how easily brainwashed people are into doing dumb shit. However, the last fifty pages were a chore to get throughout. I didn’t feel any passion from the writer, only facts being relayed and towards the end I didn’t feel like it was interesting in its layout. Still though, important to read due to our history and how people can still act today.
February 13, 2023
Really well done historical research, and a great resource for the 1920s-era mystery I'm working on. Disturbing, how widely accepted membership in the Klan was. I learned some things about the time period that I hadn't known before, and the prose is clear and eminently readable, not dense academese. To fellow history nerds out there, I definitely recommend this one.
October 31, 2023
For class, super interesting.
February 8, 2018
When you think of the history of the Ku Klux Klan, many assume they were mostly from the south, ill-educated, more or less fringe groups, who held opinions far removed from mainstream America.
Boy was I wrong.
Historian Linda Gordon provides a chilling history of the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.
Many might be surprised to learn the Klan developed a strong political machine in the North. Oregon, for example, today, one of the most liberal states in America, was a major stronghold for the Klan during the turbulent 1920s. And in Indiana, between 1924 and 1926, 11 of the 13 elected officials to the U.S. House of Representatives were Klan members, as were a majority of Texas and Colorado Congressman.
Simply chilling!
The Klan even had two members on the U.S. Supreme Court: Hugo Black and Edward Douglas White.
Not even U.S. Presidents were immune from the Klan: President Harding was a member, and President Truman joined the KKK (briefly) thinking it was a patriotic organization.
The influence of the KKK was so great in the early part of the 20th century, that Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, never had the nerve to condemn them.
In addition, about a half-million women hitched their wagon to the Klan movement.
With a wave of new immigrants, hate for Catholics, and Jews, the KKK had what they thought was a sure-fire agenda to galvanize America from pernicious groups threatening white Protestant America.
Gordon, in her well researched, superbly written book, gives readers the hard, motivating facts on why the KKK, by 1927, had shrunk from several million to about 350.000.
The Jews and Catholics, by then, had become heavily assimilated into the North; and the Immigration Act of 1924, (or Johnson–Reed Act), severely restricted immigrants entering the country, that is, until 1965.
With Jews and Catholics now a powerful voting electorate, and not as many immigrants entering the country, the KKK lost its thunder.
The Klan’s corruption, “sinful ways,” and hypocrisy within its leadership, moreover, led many to fall away from the organization.
Still, it is disturbing to think, especially in this age of spiteful divineness in the country, how demagogic rabble-rousers with charisma, touting stereotypes, and articulating false impressions of certain groups or ethnicities, can bring to the surface, the dark side of America.
Let’s just hope and pray history doesn’t repeat itself.
--Bill Lucey
February 8, 2018
WPLucey@gmail.com
Boy was I wrong.
Historian Linda Gordon provides a chilling history of the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.
Many might be surprised to learn the Klan developed a strong political machine in the North. Oregon, for example, today, one of the most liberal states in America, was a major stronghold for the Klan during the turbulent 1920s. And in Indiana, between 1924 and 1926, 11 of the 13 elected officials to the U.S. House of Representatives were Klan members, as were a majority of Texas and Colorado Congressman.
Simply chilling!
The Klan even had two members on the U.S. Supreme Court: Hugo Black and Edward Douglas White.
Not even U.S. Presidents were immune from the Klan: President Harding was a member, and President Truman joined the KKK (briefly) thinking it was a patriotic organization.
The influence of the KKK was so great in the early part of the 20th century, that Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, never had the nerve to condemn them.
In addition, about a half-million women hitched their wagon to the Klan movement.
With a wave of new immigrants, hate for Catholics, and Jews, the KKK had what they thought was a sure-fire agenda to galvanize America from pernicious groups threatening white Protestant America.
Gordon, in her well researched, superbly written book, gives readers the hard, motivating facts on why the KKK, by 1927, had shrunk from several million to about 350.000.
The Jews and Catholics, by then, had become heavily assimilated into the North; and the Immigration Act of 1924, (or Johnson–Reed Act), severely restricted immigrants entering the country, that is, until 1965.
With Jews and Catholics now a powerful voting electorate, and not as many immigrants entering the country, the KKK lost its thunder.
The Klan’s corruption, “sinful ways,” and hypocrisy within its leadership, moreover, led many to fall away from the organization.
Still, it is disturbing to think, especially in this age of spiteful divineness in the country, how demagogic rabble-rousers with charisma, touting stereotypes, and articulating false impressions of certain groups or ethnicities, can bring to the surface, the dark side of America.
Let’s just hope and pray history doesn’t repeat itself.
--Bill Lucey
February 8, 2018
WPLucey@gmail.com
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November 8, 2019This book is the truth I have been waiting for since I was 11 years old. It is the book I thought I had to write myself, the truth I thought only I knew; the truth whispered in back rooms of Elks lodges in little towns like Linton Indiana and giant halls of Masonic institutions like The Scottish Rite Cathedral, the truth whispered and feared, examined, clarified and illuminated by my parents in the union of their marriage they explored the social construction of who they were, where they came from and what they wanted to embrace together. Right and wrong were very clear to them. They were political beings and understood very vividly that their choices could make or break their own humanity. I believe my mother was the more elevated between the two of them and helped my father discover intellect and the affect of social construct. Important things were on tv and my parents were terrified. . .Why? I didn't know. I asked if we could go to the Bay of Pigs and swim with the piggies at the beach there like we did when we vacationed in Florida. Was my father one of the KKK news boys? It's quite possible he was. I know he was associated with their circus since he was three and picked up by an elephant and put up on the wagon to the delight of the crowd. . . an old family story. We understood America was evolving and in trouble. My mother believed unshakably in the goodness of humanity and that the deepest evil could be healed. She was naïve and 100% wrong. Evil is not cured by godly magic but is much more complex. I can barely breathe in reading this book because it is the truth about Indiana's ugly past manipulated racism that became monstrous. It terrifies me. And because I read this book I will write, and write and write. Thank you, Linda Gordon.
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