Ku-Klux

“Extraordinarily well-researched. . . .interesting and illuminating.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A superb, important new interpretation of the history of the first Ku Klux Klan. . . . Highly recommended for those interested in the history of the South, Reconstruction, and American racial violence.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“Provides an interesting and insightful view of how the Klan phenomenon was portrayed in different venues and by different kinds of actors.”—American Historical Review

“As much a cultural history as it is an institutional history, a refreshing departure from a vast literature that has long cataloged the political, social, and economic implications of Reconstruction violence.”—Journal of the Civil War

“A provocative reevaluation of the Ku Klux Klan that is essential reading for anyone studying the Reconstruction South.”—Journal of Southern History

“Essential reading for scholars focusing on the Civil War, Reconstruction, or racist violence in America.”—H-Net Reviews

“A happy marriage of the tools of social history and the insights of cultural history.”— Arkansas Historical Quarterly

“Explodes many commonly held conceptions about the first Klan through meticulous research of thousands of sources.”—Agricultural History

“This is the first book to really apply cultural history to the questions that historians of Reconstruction have been asking for a long time. This is a great, groundbreaking work that will clearly be a major milestone in the study of Reconstruction and the history of the Klan.” —Bruce Baker, Newcastle University

“Exciting, impeccably researched, and much-needed, Parsons' book goes far beyond providing a social or political history of the organization, and examines the Klan as a complex, cultural phenomenon that carried social and political force through the cultural meanings that it conveyed and that were imposed upon it.” —Amy Wood, Illinois State University