An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

656. The Ku Klux Klan: Birth of a Nation (Part 3)

March 30, 2026

Description

How did the second incarnation of the clan, born in Georgia in 1915, grow into a seemingly indomitable nation-wide fraternal organisation, numbering millions? Who were its new targets? And, with...

Books Referenced

The Clansman

Author: Thomas Dixon

Context:

Dixon wrote this 1905 novel with the subtitle 'a historical romance of the Ku Klux Klan' which became the basis for D.W. Griffith's film 'The Birth of a Nation' and helped inspire the second incarnation of the Klan.

The Leopard's Spots

Author: Thomas Dixon

Context:

A 1902 novel by Dixon that was an account of Reconstruction in which he argued that 'a leopard can't change its spots' - meaning African-Americans couldn't change their nature as former slaves.

The Rising Tide of Colour Against White World Supremacy

Author: Lothrop Stoddard

Context:

A real book that Tom Buchanan reads in The Great Gatsby, reflecting the early 1920s anxiety about white Anglo-Saxon stock being overwhelmed by other races.

Hooded Americanism

Author: David Chalmers

Context:

Referenced as one of the brilliant books the host relied on for research, with Chalmers noting how the Klan gave people in small towns a chance to live out an exciting inner life.