Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, 1915–1930. Kelly J.Baker. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011.

Abstract

Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930. Kelly J. Baker. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011.Kelly J. Baker's Gospel According to the Klan examines the religiosity of the second Ku Klux Klan, which was active from 1915 to 1930. Baker's book contributes to discussions of religion and intolerance in American history by underscoring the role of Protestant Christianity in the second Klan's ideologies and rituals. In addition, Baker emphasizes the importance of print culture in the development and maintenance of the second Klan's collective identity. By examining written sources produced by Klan leaders, Baker reconstructs the organization's worldview, which reflected prevailing concerns about industrialism and immigration. Ultimately, this text draws attention to the role of religious ideals in discriminatory social movements in the United States, suggesting a nuanced understanding of American religious history should seriously consider the Klan and similar movements.Historical studies of the Ku Klux Klan have portrayed its members as social outliers, rural or backward people whose white supremacist ideals and violent public displays distinguished them from members of mainstream society. Baker's book advances a line of scholarship countering this notion. Baker's discussion of the role of Protestantism within the Klan emphasizes points of similarity between the beliefs of Klan members and those of non-members from similar geographic, religious, racial and socio-economic communities. For Klan members and many non-members, the national identity of the United States was moored to Protestant tradition. Klan members and others saw threats to their religious and social ideals in the large influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants, as well as in the movement of African Americans to Northern cities after reconstruction. In response to perceived threats to their national and religious identity, Klan members were instructed to lead virtuous lives. Baker argues that, above all, Klan leadership encouraged members to be strong Protestants who stood up for their beliefsand many of their beliefs, Baker suggests, reflected widespread concerns.Gospel According to the Klan is organized historically and thematically. The book opens with the death of Mary Phagan, a young Georgia factory worker, and the lynching of her accused murderer, the Jewish businessman Leo Frank. To emphasize the significance of religion in her narrative, Baker highlights founder William Simmons's emphasis on ritual and religion in developing the structure and rituals of the organization. …