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Populism, Fascism, and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s

American Academy in Berlin
23.1K subscribers
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The American Ku Klux Klan is familiar to many: after the Civil War, it formed in the southern states as a masked terrorist group devoted to maintaining white supremacy and ensuring cheap sharecropper labor. But few know about the “second KKK,” which attracted three to six million members in the 1920s in the northern states. It became a mass organization by expanding its enemies list to include Catholics and Jews. It claimed that America was “destined” to be a white Protestant nation, and that God had created the Klan in order to stop Catholic and Jewish conspiracies to seize power. This second Klan was mainly nonviolent, was not secret, and pursued a highly successful electoral and legislative strategy. In this talk, historian Linda Gordon argues that the second Klan’s white nationalist ideology and strategy continue to influence US politics and can help to illuminate the recent rise of “populist” and fascistic movements around the globe. ...more
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Linda Gordon

0:57

Left and Right Populism

10:39

The American Populist Party of the 1890s

11:33

Compare Fascism and Populism as Social Movements

16:27

Anti-Semitism

26:54

Jonah and the Whale

27:48

Protocols of the Elders of Zion

37:18

Glorification of Violence

40:09

Autobiography of Malcolm X

42:10

Authoritarian Leadership and Followership

43:35

The Journalist Dorothy Thompson

45:53

Nativism

47:34

Clan Feminism

50:07

Maternal Custody of Children

50:23

Role of Children in the Clan in the 20s

1:01:25

Schools

1:01:41

Eugenics

1:15:46
Populism, Fascism, and the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s
144Likes
13,915Views
2019May 21
The American Ku Klux Klan is familiar to many: after the Civil War, it formed in the southern states as a masked terrorist group devoted to maintaining white supremacy and ensuring cheap sharecropper labor. But few know about the “second KKK,” which attracted three to six million members in the 1920s in the northern states. It became a mass organization by expanding its enemies list to include Catholics and Jews. It claimed that America was “destined” to be a white Protestant nation, and that God had created the Klan in order to stop Catholic and Jewish conspiracies to seize power. This second Klan was mainly nonviolent, was not secret, and pursued a highly successful electoral and legislative strategy. In this talk, historian Linda Gordon argues that the second Klan’s white nationalist ideology and strategy continue to influence US politics and can help to illuminate the recent rise of “populist” and fascistic movements around the globe.

Follow along using the transcript.

American Academy in Berlin

23.1K subscribers