Behind the Mask of Chivalry
The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan- 30th Anniversary Edition
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:15th Aug '24
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On Thanksgiving night, 1915, a small band of hooded men gathered atop Stone Mountain, an imposing granite butte just outside Atlanta. With a flag fluttering in the wind beside them, a Bible open to the twelfth chapter of Romans, and a flaming cross to light the night sky above, William Joseph Simmons and his disciples proclaimed themselves the new Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, named for the infamous secret order in which many of their fathers had served after the Civil War. Unsure of their footing in the New South and longing for the provincial, patriarchal world of the past, the men of the second Klan saw themselves as an army in training for a war between the races. They boasted that they had bonded into "an invisible phalanx...to stand as impregnable as a tower against every encroachment upon the white man's liberty...in the white man's country, under the white man's flag." Behind the Mask of Chivalry brings the "invisible phalanx" into broad daylight, culling from history the names, the life stories, and the driving passions of the anonymous Klansmen beneath the white hoods and robes. Using an unusual and rich cache of internal Klan records from Athens, Georgia, to anchor her observations, Nancy MacLean combines a fine-grained portrait of a local Klan world with a penetrating analysis of the second Klan's ideas and politics nationwide. No other right-wing movement has ever achieved as much power as the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, and this book shows how and why it did. MacLean reveals that the movement mobilized its millions of American followers largely through campaigns waged over issues that today would be called "family values": Prohibition violation, premarital sex, lewd movies, anxieties about women's changing roles, and worries over waning parental authority. Neither elites nor "poor white trash," most of the Klan rank and file were married, middle-aged, and middle class. Local meetings, or klonklaves, featured readings of the minutes, plans for recruitment campaigns and Klan barbecues, and distribution of educational materials--Christ and Other Klansmen was one popular tome. Nonetheless, as mundane as proceedings often were at the local level, crusades over "morals" always operated in the service of the Klan's larger agenda of virulent racial hatred and middle-class revanchism. The men...
An ambitious addition to a now long list of revisionist local studies of the Klan. It is the first of these books to focus on a southern community or state, and the first to place gender squarely at the center in explaining the extraordinary popularity of the men's Klan. * The Journal of American History *
One of the most insightful and authoritative works on the Klan. It will serve as the standard work on the Klan of the 20s for decades to come. * David Williams, Valdosta State University *
[T]his is an important book. It is recommended for all students of the South, African Americans, and violence in American history. * History *
Behind the Mask of Chivalry is a well-written...analysis of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. * Journal of Social History *
This is a big book about a small place....Its dark vision of the American heartland is bound to stir lively debate. * The New York Times Book Review *
This study...is without a doubt the best done on the Klan in the 1920s....[W]hat emerges is a portrait of racial division in this country that is frightening, and important to understand. * LIATT *
Using a rich cache of Klan records from Athens, Georgia, MacLean shows how and why the Klan achieved a level of power and influence unmatched by other American right-wing groups. * The Black Scholar *
Behind the Mask of Chivalry is a unique and well-researched resource on the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Nancy MacLean's book is an invaluable work for scholars or anyone interested in this little-documented era of Klan history. * Morris Dees, The Southern Poverty Law Center *
An elegant and sophisticated book that goes a long way toward unraveling the puzzle of the twentieth-century Ku Klux Klan. * Edward L. Ayers, author of The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction *
In a major new interpretation, MacLean puts the Ku Klux Klan in racial, sexual, class and even international context. This powerful book will challenge all of us to rethink the nature and potential of American right wing movements. * Linda Gordon, author of Heroes of Their own Lives: The Politics and History of Family Violence *
A powerful read...[A]n essential read for any student of U.S. sociology or history and for anyone engaged in the necessary struggle for social change. * S.E. Anderson, City College of New York *
Nancy MacLean has written a remarkable, readable, and important book on the second Ku Klux Klan. With this study, Nancy MacLean has made a significant scholarly contribution to our understanding of the Klan. * Richard L. Aynes, University of Akron *
Professor Maclean and 'Behind the Mask of Chivalry' have made the study of Klan history much more interesting and significant. * David Chalmers, University of Florida *
- Winner of Winner, Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Prize, Southern Historical Association Winner, James A. Rawley Prize, Organization of American Historians.
ISBN: 9780197782903
Dimensions: 207mm x 141mm x 20mm
Weight: 390g
336 pages