Book
Life of a Klansman : a family history in white supremacy / Edward Ball.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780374186326 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 395 pages : illustrations, genealogical table ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Prologue: Our Klansman -- The Ku-Klux act -- Grands blancs / Big whites -- Tribes -- Introduction to an atrocity -- White terror -- Petits blancs / Little whites -- Redemption. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Biographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 305.800976335 Lecor-B | 31681010219095 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"An examination of the history of the author's family and its ties to white supremacist movements."-- - Baker & Taylor
The author of Slaves in the Family presents a trenchant exploration of a familyâs legacy of white supremacy, detailing how Louisiana carpenter Constant Lecorgne joined the KKK to promote fanatical racism in post-Civil War America. 50,000 first printing. Illustrations. - McMillan Palgrave
"A haunting tapestry of interwoven stories that inform us not just about our past but about the resentment-bred demons that are all too present in our society today . . . The interconnected strands of race and history give Ballâs entrancing stories a Faulknerian resonance." âWalter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review
A 2020 NPR staff pick | One of The New York Times' thirteen books to watch for in August | One of The Washington Post's ten books to read in August | A Literary Hub best book of the summer| One of Kirkus Reviews' sixteen best books to read in August
The life and times of a militant white supremacist, written by one of his offspring, National Book Awardâwinner Edward Ball
Life of a Klansman tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. Edward Ball, a descendant of the Klansman, paints a portrait of his familyâs anti-black militant that is part history, part memoir rich in personal detail.
Sifting through family lore about âour Klansmanâ as well as public and private records, Ball reconstructs the story of his great-great grandfather, Constant Lecorgne. A white French Creole, father of five, and working class ship carpenter, Lecorgne had a career in white terror of notable and bloody completeness: massacres, night riding, masked marches, street rampagesâall part of a tireless effort that he and other Klansmen made to restore white power when it was threatened by the emancipation of four million enslaved African Americans. To offer a non-white view of the Ku-klux, Ball seeks out descendants of African Americans who were once victimized by âour Klansmanâ and his comrades, and shares their stories.
For whites, to have a Klansman in the family tree is no rare thing: Demographic estimates suggest that fifty percent of whites in the United States have at least one ancestor who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan at some point in its history. That is, one-half of white Americans could write a Klan family memoir, if they wished.
In an era when racist ideology and violence are again loose in the public square, Life of a Klansman offers a personal origin story of white supremacy. Ballâs family memoir traces the vines that have grown from militant roots in the Old South into the bitter fruit of the present, when whiteness is again a cause that can veer into hate and domestic terror.
