Fergus Bordewich is an independent historian and writer. This interview is based on his new book, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction (Knopf, 2023). JF: What led you to write Klan War? FB: Many of my...
Drew Swanson is Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Distinguished Professor of Southern History at Georgia Southern University. This interview is based on his new book, A Man of Bad Reputation: The Murder of John Stephens and the Contested Landscape of North...
It was a really strange statue that one website said “accurately reflects the ugliness of its subject.” D. Patrick Rodgers’s piece at Nashville Scene is titled “Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Fallen.” Here is a taste: The Confederacy has fallen. Again....
Two reporters contacted me this week to talk about Christian nationalism and the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. I told both of them that Christian nationalism does not necessarily have to result in white supremacy. As I argued in Was...
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMXiVShGOdQ&w=560&h=315] HT and commentary...
Take the quiz at The Vault....
We were all in the studio today recording Episode 25 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. Â This is our first episode of Season 4. In this episode we discuss race and Charlottesville with Kelly J. Baker, author of...
Jon Meacham lays it out for us in this piece at Time. Here is a taste: The message was clear. The fate of America — or at least of white America, which was the only America that counted — was at...
Fox News conservative Charles Krauthammer: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxb5VGrSPKs&w=560&h=315]...
The Religion & Culture Forum is running a series of posts on the history of the relationship between white supremacy and Christianity in modern America.  A taste: The June issue of the Forum features Kelly J. Baker’s essay, “The Artifacts of...
London knife attacker shouted “This is for Allah.” Why don’t we ever hear terrorists shout “This is for Jesus Christ?” Pray. — Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) June 4, 2017 I am not excusing what happened in London this weekend. It...
Did that title get your attention? Jake Meador has written a great piece of satire. But like most satire, it is very telling about some of the recent arguments evangelicals in support of the Donald Trump candidacy for President of...
Cara Giaimo explains at Slate: In 1930, E.D. Rivers—state senator, gubernatorial candidate, and Great Titan of the Ku Klux Klan—stood up in front of his constituents in Clarke County, Georgia, and made an impassioned speech. “For the first time in the...
Check out this digital map produced by the Mapping the Ku Klux Klan (1915-1940) project at Virginia Commonwealth University.  I think it is fair to say that the Klan spread very quickly in these years. Here is an article from the Virginia Commonwealth website:A joint project...
I still need to read this book, but I have heard great things about it. Art Remillard, the book review editor of The Journal of Southern Religion, interviews Kelly Baker on her book Gospel According to the Klan: The Ku...
