Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment

A rare insider’s chronicle unfolds the early days of a secretive post‑civil‑war society, tracing its birth in a small Tennessee town and its rapid spread across the Southern states. Drawing on testimony from former members, relatives, and local officials, the narrative offers a candid portrait of how the group organized, recruited, and presented itself to its adherents. The authors—one a former soldier‑lawyer and the other a minister‑scholar—were themselves present at the organization’s founding, lending a personal dimension to a subject often cloaked in myth.

The work is organized into five clear sections that follow the movement from its origins through expansion, transformation, decline, and eventual dissolution. An introductory essay by a noted historian contextualizes the turbulent Reconstruction era, while extensive appendices reproduce original oaths, constitutions, and warnings issued by the order. Illustrated with period images, the book provides a valuable primary‑source window into a complex and contested chapter of American history.