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Article: Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Nancy MacLean has written a remarkable, readable, and important book on the second Ku Klux Klan. The second Klan was founded in 1915, crested in 1924-25, and was all but non-existent by 1936. MacLean is largely successful in her effort to determine "how Klansmen understood their world" by interrogating "even odious and seemingly irrational thought to grasp its inner logic and understand its sources."
The core of MacLean's research is a detailed study of the Clarke County (Athens), Georgia, Klan whose chapter records have been preserved. From a data base of 418 Klan members she extracted statistical and individual profiles. She skillfully weaves national, state, and ...