Take a photo of a barcode or cover
librarybonanza 's review for:
They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Age: Middle School
"'Boys, let us get up a club.'
With those words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friend’s mansion in 1866. They pulled white sheets over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee. Soon, the six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan and began patterning their initiations after fraternity rites, with passwords and mysterious handshakes. All too quickly, this club would grow into the self-proclaimed “Invisible Empire,” with secret dens spread across the South. On their brutal raids, the nightriders would claim to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers and would use psychological and physical terror against former slaves who dared to vote, own land, attend school, or worship as they pleased" (Goodreads feature review).
A well documented, unbiased account of the KKK during Reconstruction. An excellent provision of primary resources (clear and jarring photographs of letters, people, and paintings and direct, unmodified quotes). I would suggest this more for a teacher to use a chapter in class, than a student writing a report on the KKK. While the student can use the primary resources, the chapters contain few sub-headings, making it hard to find a precise moment in history. Therefore, a teacher might assign reading for a whole chapter and this is where the power of the book lies.
"'Boys, let us get up a club.'
With those words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friend’s mansion in 1866. They pulled white sheets over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee. Soon, the six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan and began patterning their initiations after fraternity rites, with passwords and mysterious handshakes. All too quickly, this club would grow into the self-proclaimed “Invisible Empire,” with secret dens spread across the South. On their brutal raids, the nightriders would claim to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers and would use psychological and physical terror against former slaves who dared to vote, own land, attend school, or worship as they pleased" (Goodreads feature review).
A well documented, unbiased account of the KKK during Reconstruction. An excellent provision of primary resources (clear and jarring photographs of letters, people, and paintings and direct, unmodified quotes). I would suggest this more for a teacher to use a chapter in class, than a student writing a report on the KKK. While the student can use the primary resources, the chapters contain few sub-headings, making it hard to find a precise moment in history. Therefore, a teacher might assign reading for a whole chapter and this is where the power of the book lies.