The Fiery Cross

In The Fiery Cross, Wyn Craig Wade traces the history of the Klan from its beginnings after the Civil War as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, to the present. The reader follows the Klan's resurgence in 1915 after D.W. Griffith's epic film The Birth of a Nation depicted Klan members as heroic saviors of the old Southern society, to the swearing in of President Warren G. Harding as a Klansman in the Green Room. Wade explores the Klan's championing of white supremacy as a response to the Civil Rights movement in the 60s, through to their present day activities, aligning themselves with a variety of neo-fascist and right-wing groups in the American West. He concludes by offering an assessment of the Klan's future. The Fiery Cross provides an exhaustive analysis and perspective on this dark shadow of American society.