In the 1920s, after WWI and when the Jazz Age, flappers, and prohibition lived, the Ku Klux Klan emerged again, after having been eliminated after the Civil War. This story tells how they came to have over 500,000 members in the mid-1920s, marching in mass in Washington DC. The horrifying fact was that a major stronghold was Indiana, the "heartland" of the U.S. The membership spread from there at the instigation of D.C. Stephenson, a despicable manipulator who coerced men to join for $10 a piece. He exploited the prejudices of whites against Jews, immigrants, and African-Americans. The book chronicles the rise of the Klan and its downfall (or maybe only its receding) after Stephenson is tried for a brutal attack on a young woman. It's easy to see the parallels to current U.S. divisive factions. A must read.
Published: 2023 Read: October 2023 Genre: History
No comments:
Post a Comment
Post your comments here, would love to hear what you think