The 1920s Klan was well integrated into American life. 「The K.K.K. may actually have enunciated values with which a majority of 1920s Americans agreed,」 Gordon writes.
One of Gordon’s tasks is to show that the 1920s we think we know — a Gatsbyan bacchanal of speakeasies, flappers and mob hits — was just an urban, coastal bubble.
For most Americans, it would appear, the decade was more like something out of 「Babbitt」 or 「Elmer Gantry」: a country turned inward against the world, small-minded and cruel.
A country in which the Klan and its values — so-called Americanism, xenophobia, white nationalism and patriarchy — were the norm. An America, Gordon all but says, not unlike today.