Klansmen Guardians Of Liberty

Feminist,Ó with its modern interpretation, might not be the word Alma White would have chosen, but there is no doubt that this strong and independent woman fought all the definitions of what a woman was supposed to be at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. When women were mostly consigned to the roles of wife and mother--and bitterly opposed as preachers--Alma White developed into a fierce and successful religious leader. A founder of the Pentecostal Union (later renamed the Pillar of Fire), she found biblical affirmation for her role as prophet and preacher. She was larger than life. A brilliant businesswoman, she was one of the first church leaders to embrace technology with the purchase of multiple radio stations. Alma White was one of those great, landmark American characters out of whom the richest of history is made.

Explores haunted places, local legends, crazy characters, and unusual roadside attractions found in New Jersey.

An urgent examination into the revived Klan of the 1920s becomes “required reading” for our time (New York Times Book Review). Extraordinary national acclaim accompanied the publication of award-winning historian Linda Gordon’s disturbing and markedly timely history of the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s. Dramatically challenging our preconceptions of the hooded Klansmen responsible for establishing a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South, this “second Klan” spread in states principally above the Mason-Dixon line by courting xenophobic fears surrounding the flood of immigrant “hordes” landing on American shores. “Part cautionary tale, part expose” (Washington Post), The Second Coming of the KKK “illuminates the surprising scope of the movement” (The New Yorker); the Klan attracted four-to-six-million members through secret rituals, manufactured news stories, and mass “Klonvocations” prior to its collapse in 1926—but not before its potent ideology of intolerance became part and parcel of the American tradition. A “must-read” (Salon) for anyone looking to understand the current moment, The Second Coming of the KKK offers “chilling comparisons to the present day” (New York Review of Books).

In 1920s Middle America, the Ku Klux Klan gained popularity not by appealing to the fanatical fringes of society, but by attracting the interest of “average” citizens. During this period, the Klan recruited members through the same unexceptional channels as any other organization or club, becoming for many a respectable public presence, a vehicle for civic activism, or the source of varied social interaction. Its diverse membership included men and women of all ages, occupations, and socio-economic standings. Although surviving membership records of this clandestine organization have proved incredibly rare, Everyday Klansfolk uses newly available documents to reconstruct the life and social context of a single grassroots unit in Newaygo County, Michigan. A fascinating glimpse behind the mask of America’s most notorious secret order, this absorbing study sheds light on KKK activity and membership in Newaygo County, and in Michigan at large, during the brief and remarkable peak years of its mass popular appeal.