One Hundred Percent American

Thomas R. Pegram is professor of history at Loyola University Maryland. Born in Hammond, Indiana, he grew up in the Midwest and California, then studied at Santa Clara University and Brandeis University, where he received a Ph.D. in American history. He has also taught at the Ohio State University. He is also the author of Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800–1933, and Partisans and Progressives: Private Interest and Public Policy in Illinois, 1870–1922. He lives with his family in Baltimore County, Maryland.

• PrefaceChapter 1: The Klan in 1920s SocietyChapter 2: Building a White, Protestant CommunityChapter 3: Defining Americanism: White Supremacy and Anti-CatholicismChapter 4: Learning Americanism: The Klan and Public SchoolsChapter 5: Dry Americanism: Prohibition, Law, and CultureChapter 6: The Problem of Hooded ViolenceChapter 7: The Search for Political Influence and the Collapse of the Klan MovementChapter 8: EchoesAfterword: Historians and the Klan

Pegram (Loyola Univ.-Maryland) provides a comprehensive examination of the 1920s Klan and places it in its proper historical context. He successfully challenges the idea that the Klan fit comfortably into the US mainstream in that confusing time: "The book situates the Klan within mainstream developments in American postwar life but also explains why the Klan failed to achieve mainstream status in the 1920s." Pegram relies on both the words and publications of Klansmen and their surrounding communities to illustrate how the excesses of the organized Klan made it impossible for it to truly fit in the mainstream. While not downplaying the Klan's violence, he also discusses the organization's other activities (politics, volunteering, boycotts) to show how even if it shared mainstream values (racism, anti-Semitism, etc.), it could not gain the support of the majority of Americans, nor could it retain its own popularity long after the 1920s ended. Well written, well organized, and worth the read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.