I almost put this book down shortly after I started it, and that's something that I never really do, for no other reason being than my obsessive-compulsive disorder. But I digress...the reason I almost didn't finish it (and now I am glad that I did) is that it was set 150 years ago and eye-witness accounts are hard to come by. I guess I didn't trust the author speculating anything and wondering he was just ad-libbing to make it sensational. But you quickly see that it's not necessary for him to do that. It was also cool that it was set in Louisiana so a lot of the names were familiar and this is U.S. history and I can't ever really get too much of that. ( )

I almost put this book down shortly after I started it, and that's something that I never really do, for no other reason being than my obsessive-compulsive disorder. But I digress...the reason I almost didn't finish it (and now I am glad that I did) is that it was set 150 years ago and eye-witness accounts are hard to come by. I guess I didn't trust the author speculating anything and wondering he was just ad-libbing to make it sensational. But you quickly see that it's not necessary for him to do that. It was also cool that it was set in Louisiana so a lot of the names were familiar and this is U.S. history and I can't ever really get too much of that. ( )

I almost put this book down shortly after I started it, and that's something that I never really do, for no other reason being than my obsessive-compulsive disorder. But I digress...the reason I almost didn't finish it (and now I am glad that I did) is that it was set 150 years ago and eye-witness accounts are hard to come by. I guess I didn't trust the author speculating anything and wondering he was just ad-libbing to make it sensational. But you quickly see that it's not necessary for him to do that. It was also cool that it was set in Louisiana so a lot of the names were familiar and this is U.S. history and I can't ever really get too much of that. ( )

Life of a Klansman, A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward Ball is a very timely work. However, much of the content is based in speculation instead of documented facts. It's interesting to learn about New Orleans, and it mentions Ohio and Cincinnati which I found interesting. I had hoped to use this book as a book club title, but I don't think its a good historical fit. ( )

Author used a great-grandparent Klansman as the means to tell the story of the rise of white supremacist militancy in the south after the Civil War, certainly a story worth telling. The problem for me was he knew very little about this man so resorted to considerable speculation about what Constant Lecorgne "might have or proably did", "must have known" and so forth. I found this distracting. The writing I found at times to be poor, frequently in a tone suitable for high school sophomores. ( )