They Called Themselves the K.K.K.

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Hennepin County Library hardcover 150 pages

Well-researched and well-written, I didn't enjoy this book. The author did a good job of providing the background for the start of the KKK. The engravings and photographs added a lot of texture. I just don't enjoy reading about such cruelty and hatred. At times, the author seemed to be making such an effort to provide unbiased, factual information that she seemed almost sympathetic to the KKK. Poor white landowners who were land rich and cash poor. The sheer brutality and horror of the KKK's reign were understated, in my opinion. Still, I learned a lot from this book. I had never before known where the name Ku Klux Klan came from. I also didn't realize that the original group were more pranksters than terrorists.