{"id":2490,"date":"2017-12-29T18:19:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T02:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2017-12-29T18:19:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T02:19:31","slug":"review-the-second-coming-of-the-kkk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=2490","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Second Coming of the KKK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three incarnations of the KKK each have a distinct character wrapped around manifestation of the parts of American society that resist change and exploit fear. My description may sound a little timid for an institution that is universally reviled – and I revile it – but the strongest elements of Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK<\/em> explain how Klan leaders presented it to the nation as a normal institution.\u00a0 The second (major) incarnation was the most visible and politically influential one.\u00a0 At a time when our leaders openly demean citizens based on their race, or their origin, or similar sources of otherness, Gordon’s study of the history is essential.<\/p>\n

The current xenophobic forces in the country and world are not the KKK, but the tools and motivations that its leaders used to expand the institution’s influence are all clearly visible in today’s news.<\/p>\n

Gordon’s history is extensively researched and clearly articulated.\u00a0 She breaks out her analysis topically rather than chronologically. That helps separate the concerns but does somewhat obscure the narrative arc.\u00a0 That said, exploring the mechanisms and driving forces of the expansion are telling.\u00a0 The 1920’s KKK (the second coming) was equal parts fraternal organization, terror group, and multi-layered marketing scheme.\u00a0 She picks each of these elements (and a couple more) apart deftly and cleanly. Watching and understanding those wheels is enlightening.<\/p>\n

Of course the most mortifying thing about both the 20’s KKK and the current fear-mongering is that citizens embrace it.\u00a0 To me, the elements that the Klan leaders present are combinations of rationalizations, appeals to avarice, raising false fears, and appeals to the herd mentality.\u00a0 On the other hand, people – and I’m a person – always respond to them.\u00a0 I would be delighted if Coming<\/em> presented some kind of remedy, but the 20’s Klan pretty much burned itself out.\u00a0 There’s some solace in that, but I’d rather have a clearer path.<\/p>\n

In any case, there is much to learn from Second Coming<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The three incarnations of the KKK each have a distinct character wrapped around manifestation of the parts of American society that resist change and exploit fear. My description may sound a little timid for an institution that is universally reviled – and I revile it – but the strongest elements of Linda Gordon’s The Second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}