A True and Concise History of the Ku Klux Klan: In Their Own Words Paperback – November 30, 2017

6.5/10. Individual parts between 1.5 and 4 on a scale of 5: many, especially later, parts are irrelevant to the history of the KKK. Copyediting is terrible. Several of the included sources are available elsewhere at much lower cost.The 55 Club's 'True and Concise History of the Ku Klux Klan' would be better entitled 'Readings in the History of the KKK': it contains a wide smattering, bordering on a kitchen sink, of primary sources (including over 40 plates of greyscale photographs) in three parts with no straightforward connection between them. Sources of divergent historical, political, and ideological interest and value - both within and between the three identifiable parts - are sandwiched between these covers.The authors divide the text in to five sections along lines that make no sense to me and seem artificial (supposedly corresponding with the 'five eras of the KKK'), with sections iv and v being quite short and seeming to be addenda or appendices to section iii. The primary sources included range from Southern newspaper articles and extracts of school textbooks written during Reconstruction, to a photostat of the 'Kloran' or ritual manual of the 1920s 'Birth of a Nation'-revived Klan, to miscellaneous writings by contemporary Rightist figures on topics ranging from multiculturalism to central banking and 'ZOG' in parts iii-v.Alongside of these is intermittent commentary (poorly and confusingly set off from the primary texts) from what I take to be an editorial committee which did the job poorly: the text, both OCR reproductions (parts i and iii) and editorial comments are poorly formatted, lacking any sense of typographical aesthetic, and full of typos, broken lines, dangling everything, and other errors. The editors really needed to hire some other (copy)editors: for a book of this price, I expect better than a free Kindle reproduction in formatting and proofreading. Part ii is a photostat from the 1920s and is relatively well formatted with few typos.However, I've not been able to find many of these sources elsewhere when studying the dearth of history of the KKK available, so as a collection of sources regarding both the Reconstruction-era Klan and later groups adopting the name, this is the best (only) available that I'm aware of, and is awarded a star rating commensurate with the best of its sources instead of the average accordingly. For a history of the Klan, this is it. It is not like 'another history' of the Crusades, or the Bolshevik revolution, or of WWII, or of any well-trod subjects of history on which a great variety of sources are available and one can begin to sift out the gold from the dross.

Anyone even remotely interested with the history of the klan should have this book. Pay no mind to the negative review claiming certain klansmen of the latter 20th century are omitted: that is patently false. They must not have even casually flipped through the book because there are even photos of the aforementioned lol. Anyway, this is well worth the price. The format is solid and the information within is honest and more than fair.

This book is dedicated to a white supremacist theologian. Its acknowledgments page mentions several contemporary white supremacists and fascist individuals and organizations. It romanticizes the "courage" of the KKK against the tyranny of the federal government. Overall, this is a morally bankrupt work of hatred that belongs in a museum not on a bookshelf.

I was hesitant when I first saw the steepest priced book by 55 Club at $33, for a subject that has been well gone over but after reading it I can say the book is worth a lot more. I counted seven books in this book. Early books by the daughters of the original KKK are an insider account and they are fantastic. Section two has the entire Kloran of the KKK. I also liked the gunfighter chapter. I had not known that many outlaws of the old west were fighting reconstruction. The last chapter revealed that Bob Mathews and the Order were the KKK. Hard to believe but proven. The book is dedicated to Bob Miles and it should be because the whole history is woven around the man. Enough with spoilers. I am impressed that so much information can be in one book. Where else can so much information be found in one book? Nowhere. This is probably the most important release by 55 Club yet. It is given as a history of the KKK but honestly it is a journey with a goal. I think it was probably intended as a field manual for the future. It gave me a new outlook that I did not see before but now makes perfect sense. I highly recommend for anyone that is interested in deeper understandings in a practical way. I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m still thinking about and rereading it and probably will for a long time.

I find it odd that a book that is suppose to be a complete history of the KKK doesn't even mention David Duke, Don Black or Thomas Robb. For that reason alone I wish I didn't waste my money. I suppose the only people that might be impressed with this book are people who know nothing of the modern Klan from the 1970s to the present.

Certamente un volume interessante su un fenomeno politico e sociale controverso e spesso demonizzato a priori per convenienza di parte, raccolta di documenti e foto sufficientemente ampia.

Una raccolta di documenti estremamente interessante su un fenomeno tanto calunniato della storia statunitense