Reviews
"A gripping, haunting story of how America's original white supremacist movement used terrorism to crush multiracial democracy--and how, for a time, progressive elected officials in Washington allied with grassroots African Americans and their white allies to rout the reactionaries. This is history we need to vanquish violent intimation in our own time, this time without quitting before the work is done." --Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America and Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan, "A critically important revisionist history . . . A penetrating examination of the rise of the KKK . . . For Bordewich, Grant''s decisive move proved that ''forceful political action can prevail over violent extremism.'' Yet, as he makes clear in this significant work of scholarship, it did not stop the future systematic stripping away of Blacks'' civil rights." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Riveting . . . An astute assessment of an often overlooked episode in American history." --Publishers Weekly "A gripping, haunting story of how America''s original white supremacist movement used terrorism to crush multiracial democracy--and how, for a time, progressive elected officials in Washington allied with grassroots African Americans and their white allies to rout the reactionaries. This is history we need to vanquish violent intimidation in our own time, this time without quitting before the work is done." --Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains and Behind the Mask of Chivalry "An urgent history, in which the conception and spawning of the Klan, its anti-Black atrocities and crimes against humanity, the evolution of a General and President, and the possibilities and limits of political power all come roaring to life. As searing as it is suspenseful, Klan War delivers an incisive angle into a horrific chapter in American history, one that requires knowing today." --Ilyon Woo, author of Master Slave Husband Wife "Fergus Bordewich is an expert at turning momentous questions in American history into absorbing narratives. With insight and telling details, he reveals how Grant--by nature no crusader--directed federal resources against Klan attacks on African Americans, only to be undercut by political attempts to appease the hostile Liberal Republicans. A fascinating and foreboding book." --T.J. Stiles, author of Custer''s Trials (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) "Grippingly tells the essential story of the unsung heroes who throttled the Ku Klux Klan''s murderous domestic terrorism after the Civil War, only to watch helplessly as a tragic loss of political will frittered away much of that triumph. The lessons for meeting today''s challenges are unmistakable and chilling." --David O. Stewart, author of Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln''s Legacy "Bordewich has done it again--this time, resurrecting an incredible American story of one man''s determination to secure civil rights, equality, and justice for millions of African Americans. Deeply researched and delivered through magnificent and gripping prose, Klan Wars reclaims Grant''s historic battle to build a unified nation in the face of a pernicious, hate-filled movement that waged a vicious grassroots campaign to reassert white supremacy. A must read!" --Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land "One of the most talented historians of our times tells the riveting story of Civil War hero President Ulysses Grant''s forgotten war on the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction in this marvelous book. The ultimate failure to curb domestic terrorism in the post-war south carries an important lesson for our fraught times when some appeal to political violence to overthrow the US experiment in interracial democracy. This book should be required reading for all American citizens." --Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave''s Cause: A History of Abolition "Klan War takes readers into the courageous struggle of the Grant administration to defeat an American domestic terrorist campaign to overthrow the achievements of Radical Reconstruction. Bordewich''s compelling narrative, by turns, frightening, bracing, and timely, will remind readers that today''s battle between white supremacy and human justice has a long history." --Don H. Doyle, author of The Cause of All Nations and Viva Lincoln, "A gripping, haunting story of how America's original white supremacist movement used terrorism to crush multiracial democracy--and how, for a time, progressive elected officials in Washington allied with grassroots African Americans and their white allies to rout the reactionaries. This is history we need to vanquish violent intimation in our own time, this time without quitting before the work is done." --Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains and Behind the Mask of Chivalry "Bordewich has done it again--this time, resurrecting an incredible American story of one man's determination to secure civil rights, equality, and justice for millions of African Americans. Deeply researched and delivered through magnificent and gripping prose, Klan Wars reclaims Grant's historic battle to build a unified nation in the face of a pernicious, hate-filled movement that waged a vicious grassroots campaign to reassert white supremacy. A must read!" --Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land