The Know Nothings In Louisiana

Download The Know Nothings In Louisiana full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online The Know Nothings In Louisiana ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

The Know Nothings in Louisiana

Author : Marius M. Carriere
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496816854
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Know Nothings in Louisiana by : Marius M. Carriere

Download or read book The Know Nothings in Louisiana written by Marius M. Carriere and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1850s, a startling new political party appeared on the American scene. Both its members and its critics called the new party by various names, but to most it was known as the Know Nothing Party. It reignited political fires over nativism and anti-immigration sentiments. At a time of political uncertainty, with the Whig party on the verge of collapse, the Know Nothings seemed destined to replace them and perhaps become a political fixture. Historian Marius M. Carriere Jr. tracks the rise and fall of the Know Nothing movement in Louisiana, outlining not only the history of the party as it is usually known, but also explaining how the party's unique permeation in Louisiana contrasted with the Know Nothings' expansion nationally and elsewhere in the South. For example, many Roman Catholics in the state joined the Know Nothings, even though the party was nationally known as anti-Catholic. While historians have largely concentrated on the Know Nothings' success in the North, Carriere furnishes a new context for the evolution of a national political movement at odds with its Louisiana constituents. Through statistics on various elections and demographics of Louisiana politicians, Carriere forms a detailed account of Louisiana's Know Nothing Party. The national and rapidly changing Louisiana political landscape yielded surprising, credible leverage for the Know Nothing movement. Slavery, Carriere argues, also played a crucial difference between southern and northern Know Nothing ideals. Carriere delineates the eventual downfall of the Know Nothing Party, while offering new perspectives on a nativist movement, which has appeared once again in a changing, divided country.

The Know Nothing Party in New Orleans: a Reappraisal

Author : Leon Cyprian Soulé
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Know Nothing Party in New Orleans: a Reappraisal by : Leon Cyprian Soulé

Download or read book The Know Nothing Party in New Orleans: a Reappraisal written by Leon Cyprian Soulé and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Know Nothings in Louisiana

Author : Marius M. Carriere
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781496828231
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (282 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Know Nothings in Louisiana by : Marius M. Carriere

Download or read book The Know Nothings in Louisiana written by Marius M. Carriere and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising history of political success for the nativist, anti-Catholic movement

Mutiny at Fort Jackson

Author : Michael D. Pierson
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 9780807887028
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (87 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Mutiny at Fort Jackson by : Michael D. Pierson

Download or read book Mutiny at Fort Jackson written by Michael D. Pierson and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Orleans was the largest city--and one of the richest--in the Confederacy, protected in part by Fort Jackson, which was just sixty-five miles down the Mississippi River. On April 27, 1862, Confederate soldiers at Fort Jackson rose up in mutiny against their commanding officers. New Orleans fell to Union forces soon thereafter. Although the Fort Jackson mutiny marked a critical turning point in the Union's campaign to regain control of this vital Confederate financial and industrial center, it has received surprisingly little attention from historians. Michael Pierson examines newly uncovered archival sources to determine why the soldiers rebelled at such a decisive moment. The mutineers were soldiers primarily recruited from New Orleans's large German and Irish immigrant populations. Pierson shows that the new nation had done nothing to encourage poor white men to feel they had a place of honor in the southern republic. He argues that the mutineers actively sought to help the Union cause. In a major reassessment of the Union administration of New Orleans that followed, Pierson demonstrates that Benjamin "Beast" Butler enjoyed the support of many white Unionists in the city. Pierson adds an urban working-class element to debates over the effects of white Unionists in Confederate states. With the personal stories of soldiers appearing throughout, Mutiny at Fort Jackson presents the Civil War from a new perspective, revealing the complexities of New Orleans society and the Confederate experience.

The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War

Author : Frank Towers
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
ISBN 13 : 9780813922973
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (229 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War by : Frank Towers

Download or read book The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War written by Frank Towers and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book Review

The Know-Nothing Party in the South

Author : William Darrell Overdyke
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Know-Nothing Party in the South by : William Darrell Overdyke

Download or read book The Know-Nothing Party in the South written by William Darrell Overdyke and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bibliographical notes": p. [301]-309.

The Know Nothings in Louisiana

Author : Marius M. Carriere Jr.
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496816870
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Know Nothings in Louisiana by : Marius M. Carriere Jr.

Download or read book The Know Nothings in Louisiana written by Marius M. Carriere Jr. and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1850s, a startling new political party appeared on the American scene. Both its members and its critics called the new party by various names, but to most it was known as the Know Nothing Party. It reignited political fires over nativism and anti-immigration sentiments. At a time of political uncertainty, with the Whig party on the verge of collapse, the Know Nothings seemed destined to replace them and perhaps become a political fixture. Historian Marius M. Carriere Jr. tracks the rise and fall of the Know Nothing movement in Louisiana, outlining not only the history of the party as it is usually known, but also explaining how the party's unique permeation in Louisiana contrasted with the Know Nothings' expansion nationally and elsewhere in the South. For example, many Roman Catholics in the state joined the Know Nothings, even though the party was nationally known as anti-Catholic. While historians have largely concentrated on the Know Nothings' success in the North, Carriere furnishes a new context for the evolution of a national political movement at odds with its Louisiana constituents. Through statistics on various elections and demographics of Louisiana politicians, Carriere forms a detailed account of Louisiana's Know Nothing Party. The national and rapidly changing Louisiana political landscape yielded surprising, credible leverage for the Know Nothing movement. Slavery, Carriere argues, also played a crucial difference between southern and northern Know Nothing ideals. Carriere delineates the eventual downfall of the Know Nothing Party, while offering new perspectives on a nativist movement, which has appeared once again in a changing, divided country.

Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln

Author : Michael F. Holt
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780807126097
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln by : Michael F. Holt

Download or read book Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln written by Michael F. Holt and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1992-06-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than twenty years Michael F. Holt has been considered one of the leading specialists in the political history of the United States. Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln is a collection of some of his more important shorter studies on the politics of nineteenth-century America.The collection focuses on the mass political parties that emerged in the 1820s and their role in broader political developments from that decade to 1865. Holt includes essays on the Democratic, Antimasonic, Whig, and Know Nothing parties, as well as one on Abraham Lincoln's relationship with the congressional wing of the Republican party during the Civil War. Almost all essays touch on the broad question of the role of partisan politics in explaining the outbreak of the war. Individual essays address the following questions as well: What explains the birth and death of powerful third parties? What was the relationship among economic conditions, party performance in office (especially legislative performance), and the mobilization of an unprecedented number of voters between 1836 and 1840? Why did the Whigs find it necessary to nominate military hero Zachary Taylor as their presidential candidate in 1848? What explains the death of the Whig party? What role did ethnoreligious issues and the Know Nothing party play in the realignment of the 1850s and the ultimate triumph of the Republican party? In what ways did the continuation of two-party competition after 1860 help the North win the Civil War?Most of the essays have been published previously over a twenty-year span, but there are also two new pieces. "The Mysterious Disappearance of the American Whig party," originally delivered as the Commonwealth Fund Lecture at University College London in February, 1990, seeks to explain why the Whig party died in the 1850s. This essay contrasts the fate of the Whig party with the fates of the Republican party in the 1930s and 1970s and the British Conservative party in the 1840s and 1850s - parties that survived similar, indeed graver, challenges than those to which the Whigs succumbed. In addition, Holt has written and excellent introduction in which he explains how he came to write the essays and reflects upon them in light of the current state of political history as a discipline.Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln offers provocative insights into both the history of nineteenth-century politics and the way it is studied.

Expelling the Poor

Author : Hidetaka Hirota
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019061921X
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Expelling the Poor by : Hidetaka Hirota

Download or read book Expelling the Poor written by Hidetaka Hirota and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Présentation de l'éditeur: "Expelling the Poor' argues that immigration policies in nineteenth-century New York and Massachusetts, driven by cultural prejudice against the Irish and more fundamentally by economic concerns about their poverty, laid the foundations for American immigration control."

First Chaplain of the Confederacy

Author : Katherine Bentley Jeffrey
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807174017
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis First Chaplain of the Confederacy by : Katherine Bentley Jeffrey

Download or read book First Chaplain of the Confederacy written by Katherine Bentley Jeffrey and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darius Hubert (1823‒1893), a French-born Jesuit, made his home in Louisiana in the 1840s and served churches and schools in Grand Coteau, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. In 1861, he pronounced a blessing at the Louisiana Secession Convention and became the first chaplain of any denomination appointed to Confederate service. Hubert served with the First Louisiana Infantry in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia for the entirety of the war, afterward returning to New Orleans, where he continued his ministry among veterans as a trusted pastor and comrade. One of just three full-time Catholic chaplains in Lee’s army, only Hubert returned permanently to the South after surrender. In postwar New Orleans, he was unanimously elected chaplain of the veterans of the eastern campaign and became well-known for his eloquent public prayers at memorial events, funerals of prominent figures such as Jefferson Davis, and dedications of Confederate monuments. In this first-ever biography of Hubert, Katherine Bentley Jeffrey offers a far-reaching account of his extraordinary life. Born in revolutionary France, Hubert entered the Society of Jesus as a young man and left his homeland with fellow Jesuits to join the New Orleans mission. In antebellum Louisiana, he interacted with slaves and free people of color, felt the effects of anti-Catholic and anti-Jesuit propaganda, experienced disputes and dysfunction with the trustees of his Baton Rouge church, and survived a near-fatal encounter with Know-Nothing vigilantism. As a chaplain with the Army of Northern Virginia, Hubert witnessed harrowing battles and their equally traumatic aftermath in surgeons’ tents and hospitals. After the war, he was a spiritual director, friend, mentor, and intermediary in the fractious and politically divided Crescent City, where he both honored Confederate memory and promoted reconciliation and social harmony. Hubert’s complicated and tumultuous life is notable both for its connection to the most compelling events of the era and its illumination of the complex and unexpected ways religion intersected with politics, war, and war’s repercussions.

Beyond Donkeys and Elephants

Author : Richard Davis
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700629289
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (6 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Beyond Donkeys and Elephants by : Richard Davis

Download or read book Beyond Donkeys and Elephants written by Richard Davis and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-05-25 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confronted with two historically unpopular presidential candidates, the American electorate in 2016 delivered a shock to the political system. Less noted, amid the drama of Donald Trump’s victory, was the substantial share of the vote won by minor parties and independent candidates—one of whom, Libertarian Gary Johnson, put in the best third-party performance since Ross Perot’s 1996 Reform Party bid. Even more surprising, at the state-level minor-party candidates made greater inroads, in some states combining to win over 10 percent of the vote. At a time of increasing dissatisfaction with a two-party system, this book provides a much-needed look at the current political party alternatives in the United States. In Beyond Donkeys and Elephants, the chapter authors survey the present political landscape but also delve into the history of third parties and consider their likely directions and prospects looking forward. The most comprehensive account ever written of contemporary minor political parties in the United States, Beyond Donkeys and Elephants covers parties at the national, regional, and state levels. It discusses the well-known alternatives—including the Green, Constitution, and Libertarian Parties—as well as niche state-level parties such as the Mountain Party in West Virginia, the Vermont Progressive Party, the Moderate Party of Rhode Island, and the United Utah Party. This book also places the current resurgence of minor parties in historical context, examining the larger political forces at play. With its case studies past and present, its insights into the formation and nature of minor parties, and its in-depth analysis of why and when such parties emerge, this book affords readers across the political spectrum a unique opportunity to understand and evaluate alternatives as the two-party system undergoes ever greater strains in the coming years.

Schooling in the Antebellum South

Author : Sarah L. Hyde
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807164208
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Schooling in the Antebellum South by : Sarah L. Hyde

Download or read book Schooling in the Antebellum South written by Sarah L. Hyde and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2016-10-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Schooling in the Antebellum South, Sarah L. Hyde analyzes educational development in the Gulf South before the Civil War, not only revealing a thriving private and public education system, but also offering insight into the worldview and aspirations of the people inhabiting the region. While historians have tended to emphasize that much of the antebellum South had no public school system and offered education only to elites in private institutions, Hyde’s work suggests a different pattern of development in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, where citizens actually worked to extend schooling across the region. As a result, students learned in a variety of settings—in their own homes with a family member or hired tutor, at private or parochial schools, and in public free schools. Regardless of the venue, Hyde shows that the ubiquity of learning in the region proves how highly southerners valued education. As early as the 1820s and 1830s, legislators in these states sought to increase access to education for less wealthy residents through financial assistance to private schools. Urban governments in the region were the first to acquiesce to voters’ demands, establishing public schools in New Orleans, Natchez, and Mobile. The success of these schools led residents in rural areas to lobby their local legislatures for similar opportunities. Despite an economic downturn in the late 1830s that limited legislative appropriations for education, the economic recovery of the 1840s ushered in a new era of educational progress. The return of prosperity, Hyde suggests, coincided with the maturation of Jacksonian democracy—a political philosophy that led southerners to demand access to privileges formerly reserved for the elite, including schooling. Hyde explains that while Jacksonian ideology inspired voters to lobby for schools, the value southerners placed on learning was rooted in republicanism: they believed a representative democracy needed an educated populace to survive. Consequently, by 1860 all three states had established statewide public school systems. Schooling in the Antebellum South successfully challenges the conventional wisdom that an elitist educational system prevailed in the South and adds historical depth to an understanding of the value placed on public schooling in the region.

Nativism and Slavery

Author : Tyler Anbinder
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195089227
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (95 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Nativism and Slavery by : Tyler Anbinder

Download or read book Nativism and Slavery written by Tyler Anbinder and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the United States has always portrayed itself as a sanctuary for the world's victim's of poverty and oppression, anti-immigrant movements have enjoyed remarkable success throughout American history. None attained greater prominence than the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, a fraternal order referred to most commonly as the Know Nothing party. Vowing to reduce the political influence of immigrants and Catholics, the Know Nothings burst onto the American political scene in 1854, and by the end of the following year they had elected eight governors, more than one hundred congressmen, and thousands of other local officials including the mayors of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. After their initial successes, the Know Nothings attempted to increase their appeal by converting their network of lodges into a conventional political organization, which they christened the "American Party." Recently, historians have pointed to the Know Nothings' success as evidence that ethnic and religious issues mattered more to nineteenth-century voters than better-known national issues such as slavery. In this important book, however, Anbinder argues that the Know Nothings' phenomenal success was inextricably linked to the firm stance their northern members took against the extension of slavery. Most Know Nothings, he asserts, saw slavery and Catholicism as interconnected evils that should be fought in tandem. Although the Know Nothings certainly were bigots, their party provided an early outlet for the anti-slavery sentiment that eventually led to the Civil War. Anbinder's study presents the first comprehensive history of America's most successful anti-immigrant movement, as well as a major reinterpretation of the political crisis that led to the Civil War.

War in East Texas

Author : Bill O'Neal
Publisher : University of North Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1574417398
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (744 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis War in East Texas by : Bill O'Neal

Download or read book War in East Texas written by Bill O'Neal and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1840 through 1844 East Texas was wracked by murderous violence between Regulator and Moderator factions. More than thirty men were killed in assassinations, lynchings, ambushes, street fights, and pitched battles. The sheriff of Harrison County was murdered, and so was the founder of Marshall, as well as a former district judge. Senator Robert Potter, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was slain by Regulators near his Caddo Lake home. Courts ceased to operate and anarchy reigned in Shelby County, Panola District, and Harrison County. Only the personal intervention of President Sam Houston and an invasion of the militia of the Republic of Texas halted the bloodletting. The Regulator-Moderator War was the first and largest—in numbers of participants and fatalities—of the many blood feuds of Texas, and Bill O'Neal's book is the first detailed account of this feud. He has included numerous photographs, maps to help the reader to identify various locations of specific events, and rosters of names of the Regulator and Moderator factions arranged by the counties in which the individuals were associated—along with a roster of the victims of the war.

Social Life in Old New Orleans

Author : Eliza Ripley
Publisher : New York ; London : D. Appleton and Company
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Social Life in Old New Orleans by : Eliza Ripley

Download or read book Social Life in Old New Orleans written by Eliza Ripley and published by New York ; London : D. Appleton and Company. This book was released on 1912 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Mysteries of New Orleans

Author : Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801868825
Total Pages : 592 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (688 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Mysteries of New Orleans by : Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein

Download or read book The Mysteries of New Orleans written by Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002-06-10 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Reizenstein's peculiar vision of New Orleans is worth resurrecting precisely because it crossed the boundaries of acceptable taste in nineteenth-century German America and squatted firmly on the other side... This work makes us realize how limited our notions were of what could be conceived by a fertile American imagination in the middle of the nineteenth century." -- from the Introduction by Steven Rowan A lost classic of America's neglected German-language literary tradition, The Mysteries of New Orleans by Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein first appeared as a serial in the Louisiana Staats-Zeitung, a New Orleans German-language newspaper, between 1854 and 1855. Inspired by the gothic "urban mysteries" serialized in France and Germany during this period, Reizenstein crafted a daring occult novel that stages a frontal assault on the ethos of the antebellum South. His plot imagines the coming of a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of Hiram the Freemason -- a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean superman -- for the sin of slavery. Heralded by the birth of a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, this coming revolution is depicted in frankly apocalyptic terms. Yet, Reizenstein was equally concerned with setting and characters, from the mundane to the fantastic. The book is saturated with the atmosphere of nineteenth-century New Orleans, the amorous exploits of its main characters uncannily resembling those of New Orleans' leading citizens. Also of note is the author's progressively matter-of-fact portrait of the lesbian romance between his novel's only sympathetic characters, Claudine and Orleana. This edition marks the first time that The Mysteries of New Orleans has been translated into English and proves that 150 years later, this vast, strange, and important novel remains as compelling as ever.

Life of a Klansman

Author : Edward Ball
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374720266
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Life of a Klansman by : Edward Ball

Download or read book Life of a Klansman written by Edward Ball and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A haunting tapestry of interwoven stories that inform us not just about our past but about the resentment-bred demons that are all too present in our society today . . . The interconnected strands of race and history give Ball’s entrancing stories a Faulknerian resonance." —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review A 2020 NPR staff pick | One of The New York Times' thirteen books to watch for in August | One of The Washington Post's ten books to read in August | A Literary Hub best book of the summer| One of Kirkus Reviews' sixteen best books to read in August The life and times of a militant white supremacist, written by one of his offspring, National Book Award–winner Edward Ball Life of a Klansman tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. Edward Ball, a descendant of the Klansman, paints a portrait of his family’s anti-black militant that is part history, part memoir rich in personal detail. Sifting through family lore about “our Klansman” as well as public and private records, Ball reconstructs the story of his great-great grandfather, Constant Lecorgne. A white French Creole, father of five, and working class ship carpenter, Lecorgne had a career in white terror of notable and bloody completeness: massacres, night riding, masked marches, street rampages—all part of a tireless effort that he and other Klansmen made to restore white power when it was threatened by the emancipation of four million enslaved African Americans. To offer a non-white view of the Ku-klux, Ball seeks out descendants of African Americans who were once victimized by “our Klansman” and his comrades, and shares their stories. For whites, to have a Klansman in the family tree is no rare thing: Demographic estimates suggest that fifty percent of whites in the United States have at least one ancestor who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan at some point in its history. That is, one-half of white Americans could write a Klan family memoir, if they wished. In an era when racist ideology and violence are again loose in the public square, Life of a Klansman offers a personal origin story of white supremacy. Ball’s family memoir traces the vines that have grown from militant roots in the Old South into the bitter fruit of the present, when whiteness is again a cause that can veer into hate and domestic terror.