Ku Klux Klan: An American History

For the past 150 years, the Ku Klux Klan has murdered and tortured its way through US history. By reputation it is one of the most notorious and ultra-violent terrorist groups in the world. But the truth is that it has been in terminal decline since the 1960s and the myth is now far more dangerous than the reality. From its Civil War origins as an insurgency in the defeated South, the Ku Klux Klan became a mass movement in the 1920s and a byword for bigotry and racism in the civil rights era. Since then its numbers have fallen, and yet it remains a potent symbol of white supremacist terror in post-Trump America. Drawing on twenty years of primary research, Kristoffer Allerfelt seeks to demystify one of the most hated, feared and poorly understood organisations in history. Only by seeing the Klan for what it truly is, and what it really was, can we neutralise its toxic but resilient message. AUTHOR: Kristofer Allerfeldt is a professor of US history at the University of Exeter. He has written articles, both popular and academic; and lectured in Europe, the UK and the US. He has also produced four academic books. 16 b/w illustrations