The Second Coming of the KKK

The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition

By: Linda Gordon

Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin

By legitimizing bigotry and redefining so-called American values, a revived Klan in the 1920s left a toxic legacy that demands reexamination today.

Boasting four to six million members, the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s dramatically challenged our preconceptions of hooded Klansmen, who through violence and lynching had established a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South.

Responding to the "emergency" posed by the flood of immigrant "hordes" - Pope-worshipping Irish and Italians, "self-centered Hebrews," and "sly Orientals" - this "second Klan," as award-winning historian Linda Gordon vividly chronicles, spread principally above the Mason-Dixon Line in states like Indiana, Michigan, and Oregon. Condemning "urban" vices like liquor, prostitution, movies, and jazz as Catholic and Jewish "plots" to subvert American values, the rejuvenated Klan became entirely mainstream, attracting middle-class men and women through its elaborate secret rituals and mass "Klonvocations" before collapsing amid revelations of sordid sexual scandals, financial embezzlement, and Ponzi-like schemes. The Klan's brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry and its lightning-like accretion of political power now becomes a sobering parable for the 21st century.

©2017 Linda Gordon (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This clear-eyed analysis illuminates the character and historic power of America's own 'politics of resentment.'" ( Publishers Weekly)

a great history boook!

loving it! very dense and well researched. The author does her research and goes into even the minutiae of KKK economics and rituals. Exactly what I was looking for.

Enjoyed Class Requirement

I am a history undergraduate and I loved this book. It shed light on what the 2nd KKK was really about. It helped me better understand Colorado history as well as the tactics used by right wing groups today.
Even though this was a class requirement, I would definitely recommend it to others.

Necessary History

This text sheds light on a recent period of American history that still echoes in our present more than most what to believe.

KKK Without Energy

This book was interesting to a point but was mostly a narrative without many alluring facts. It was pretty dry all the way though. Behind The Mask Of Chivalry is a great book on the second KKK. It is not on Audible but worth the read.

History Repeats Itself

An informative overview of Klan organizing in the US especially in the 1920s. Although this isn’t an exhaustive history, its parallels to today’s political populist rhetoric hasn’t changed. A hundred years later, the same people are being targeted with the same vile language that was used by the Klan in the early 1900s. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Bad narration

I got this book after listening to the author's interview on the New Yorker Radio Hour. I was fascinated by the topic. The narrator reads the book in a rushed pace as if she has a train to catch. The book also assumes that you already know some of the historic background about the KKK. If you're looking to read this as an introductory piece about this topic, then this may not the book too start with. Also, better to buy a head copy then listen to it on audible.