Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An internal history of the Klan, November 27, 1999
By A Customer
Reprint of a book published in 1905 which includes the original privately published 1884 edition of this history of the Klan from inside sources. The introduction to the 1905 edition identifies some of the Klan's leadership and briefly discusses its relationship to other secret socieies of the era. The Klan's chief judicial officer, Albert Pike, 'stood high in the Masonic order'.Written with a pro-Klan spin, the book is a terrific resource for understanding the first incarnation of the KKK from the perspective of those who were in it. Worth looking at whether you love them or hate them.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first inside story of the Reconstruction Klan, August 8, 2002
This small monograph is an early "inside" view of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, where it was first born, written some twenty years after the events of Reconstruction, augmented by an introductory essay written in 1905 by noted historian Walter L. Fleming. Ostensibly written by D. L. Wilson in collaboration with Captain J.C. Lester, one of the six founders of the Klan, it is predictably a decidedly pro-Klan document. Written in 1884, it serves as the first published "inside" story of the Klan. The authors refrain from the use of names, and there is no documentation. The book is essentially a story of the Klan, with which Lester attempts to gain popular acceptance for his description of events. The attempt at moderation serves to trivialize the Klan's deeds and to cast doubt on the degree of central organization of the Klan movement. The Klan is described as being founded for amusement, never shaped by political motivations or thirsts for violence. The society only took on foreboding characteristics as dictated by social forces of the time. The Klan sought to enforce law and order, but members soon found themselves compelled to combat violence with violence in kind, thus rendering impotent the more admirable aspirations of Klan leadership. Illustrative of the inherent dangers of counter-violence was the admission of reckless terrorism being inflicted by rebellious Klansmen following the disbanding of the true Klan in 1869. In closing, Lester and Wilson ask men to judge the Klan's actions on the basis of the conditions of Southern life, but they clearly seek to glorify the Klan for the good it accomplished, namely a stabilization of social order. In essence, the book is an apologist document, but it does provide for an illuminating, fairly contemporary look inside the Reconstruction Klan by men closely connected to the movement. As such, it is of great historical significance.
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