{"product_id":"book-dobt","title":"Life of a Klansman","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed a best book of the summer by \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life and times of a militant white supremacist, written by one of his offspring, National Book Award–winner Edward Ball\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLife of a Klansman\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. Edward Ball, a descendant of the Klansman, paints a portrait of his family’s anti-black militant that is part history, part memoir rich in personal detail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSifting through family lore about “our Klansman” as well as public and private records, Ball reconstructs the story of his great-great grandfather, Constant Lecorgne. A white French Creole, father of five, and working class ship carpenter, Lecorgne had a career in white terror of notable and bloody completeness: massacres, night riding, masked marches, street rampages—all part of a tireless effort that he and other Klansmen made to restore white power when it was threatened by the emancipation of four million enslaved African Americans. To offer a non-white view of the Ku-klux, Ball seeks out descendants of African Americans who were once victimized by “our Klansman” and his comrades, and shares their stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor whites, to have a Klansman in the family tree is no rare thing: Demographic estimates suggest that fifty percent of whites in the United States have at least one ancestor who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan at some point in its history. That is, one-half of white Americans could write a Klan family memoir, if they wished\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn an era when racist ideology and violence are again loose in the public square, \u003ci\u003eLife of a Klansman\u003c\/i\u003e offers a personal origin story of white supremacy. Ball’s family memoir traces the vines that have grown from militant roots in the Old South into the bitter fruit of the present, when whiteness is again a cause that can veer into hate and domestic terror. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49369964052784,"sku":"BDdobt","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD [40]","offer_id":49369964085552,"sku":"40dobt","price":57.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/197719-dobt-Square.jpg?v=1734640219","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-dobt","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}