The Klan - Softcover

Sims, Patsy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081310887X ISBN 13: 9780813108872

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 1996

Synopsis

" First published in 1978, The Klan is considered the best book on the grandfather of all extremist hate groups. Now, in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing and other domestic terrorist activities that are the legacy of Klan violence, it is more timely than ever. Realizing the continuing relevance of this book, Patsy Sims has revised it for the first time since its initial publication, adding a new preface and updating the individual chapters. An award-winning journalist, Sims drove more than 1,200 miles over the back roads of the South to begin this book. During two years of research and writing she talked, rallied, and kept in almost constant telephone contact with Klan leaders and members. The result was more than 150n hours of taped interviews revealing the personal experiences of the Klanspeople and their victims. These she wove together with history and contemporary news events for a riveting look inside the organization at the peak of it power.

About this title

About the Author

Patsy Sims grew up in Texas and Louisiana and has drawn from her Southern roots for much of her writing. She is the author of The Klan (Stein & Day, 1978); Cleveland Benjamin's Dead!: A Struggle for Dignity in Louisiana's Cane Country (Dutton, 1981; and Can Somebody Shout Amen!: Inside the Tents and Tabernacles of American Revivalists (St. Martin's, 1988), named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The Klan and Can Somebody Shout Amen! were reissued by the University Press of Kentucky and remain in print. Sims also co-wrote the narration for the award-winning documentary The Klan: A Legacy of Hate (Guggenheim Productions, 1982), and is the editor of Literary Nonfiction: Learning by Example (Oxford, 2001), an annotated anthology that analyzes the technical and stylistic devices that go into good writing.  Her current project is a reported memoir about spending childhood summers on the Texas prison farm where her grandfather lived and work and returning, as a journalist, in the late 1990s to spend a year observing life inside the all-male facility.
 
Prior to writing books, she was a writer and editor for the New Orleans States-Item, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her work has since appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Texas Observer, Preservation, Southern, Southern Exposure, TDC (the Discovery Channel's now-defunct monthly magazine), and most American newspapers. Sims's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities; two first places for investigative-interpretive reporting in the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Awards; finalist for a Nieman Fellowship; a residency at the MacDowell Colony; and grants from the Southern Investigative Reporting Project of the Southern Regional Council.  She has directed the MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program at Goucher College since 2001.
 

From the Back Cover

First published in 1978, The Klan is still considered the best book to appear on the grandfather of all extremist hate groups. Now, in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing and other domestic terrorist activities that are the legacy of Klan violence, it is more timely than ever. Patsy Sims, an award-winning journalist, drove more than 1,200 miles over the back roads of the South to begin this book. During two years of research and writing she talked, rallied, and kept in almost constant telephone contact with Klan leaders and rank-and-file members. The result was more than 150 hours of taped interviews revealing the personal experiences of the Klanspeople and their victims. These she wove together with history and contemporary news events for a riveting look inside the organization at the peak of its power. In this highly evocative narrative, Sims allows readers to experience Klan rallies and cross burnings, relive the terror of surviving victims, visit Klan homes and meeting halls, sit through an interview conducted at gunpoint, and meet the people behind the hoods. By showing what the leaders and members of the Invisible Empire are like both on and off the rally grounds, and by letting them speak for themselves, Sims provides invaluable insight into the mentality that gives rise to extremist hate groups and paramilitary organizations.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081310887X
• ISBN 13: 9780813108872
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 332