ABSTRACT
The American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, is still considered the most cataclysmic event in our nation's history. The first book-length histories of the Ku Klux Klan, published during and shortly after the Reconstruction Era, shed little light on what became known as the "Invisible Empire" but managed to be extremely critical nonetheless, largely based on the Klan's well-publicized thirst for violence. Dunning cast the Ku Klux Klan as saviors of the South who inspired southern whites to obstruct the radical agenda, overthrow Republican mismanagement of southern states, and restore home rule through the reestablishment of white supremacy. The terrorism of the Klan was only beginning in 1869, not coming to an end. The Compromise of 1877 is acknowledged as the final act of Reconstruction, but the federal rollback had begun, and the Ku Klux Klan played no small part in Washington's retreat from the vision of black equality that the Civil War victory seemed to have promised.
