Book Discussion: Klan War: Ulysses S Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A stunning history of the first national anti-terrorist campaign waged on American soil—when Ulysses S. Grant wielded the power of the federal government to dismantle the KKK, while testing the extent of states' rights.

The Ku Klux Klan was at its peak in the early 1870s and their mission was to obliterate the political power of newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies. To repel the virulent tidal wave of violence, President Grant waged a two-term battle against the Klan.

Klan War is a bold and bracing record of America’s past that reveals the bloody, Reconstruction-era roots of present-day battles to protect the ballot box and stamp out resurgent white supremacist ideologies.
Klan War: Ulysses S Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction by Fergus M. Bordewich is available in all formats at public libraries and bookstores.385pp