I finally finished Stetson Kennedy's The Klan Unmasked. The story is incredible. Back just after WWII the KKK was again gaining a stronghold in the U.S. Stetson Kennedy went undercover, infiltrated the Klan, and brought it to its knees. Mr. Kennedy publicized the inner-workings of the Klan which brought embarrassment to the secretive group. He exposed many public officials with Klan ties. He thwarted many violent plots and saved lives. He was a hero. Well, sort of.
First, the book.
The book is hard to read. Not because it is non-fiction written like a history book. That is what you'd expect. It's hard to read because every tale is told with such bravado. Everything was such a big deal to the author -- it was exhausting. There was no beginning, middle, end -- it was all climax. The man used exclamation points like a baker uses flour. The book was not ghost written by Jake Jarmel, I can tell you that much for sure.
The second reason it was hard to read is because I learned that Kennedy had James Frey'd a lot of the stories. I regularly visit the Freakonomics webpage and read the article written about Kennedy while I was about 1/3 of the way through The Klan Unmasked. This article reveals that while Stetson Kennedy was a good man that helped bring down the Klan, he never physically infiltrated the Klan. And, in a book about actually infiltrating the Klan, that matters. I read the book, albeit very slowly, in different light after that. I'm not saying Kennedy was a bad guy because he took another's actions and made them his own, or that he did not take grave chances to uncover the abhorrent group of cowardly haters, only that it lessened my enjoyment of the book.
I can't remember if I wrote anything about Freakonomics. If I didn't I will. That book is my new bible, supplanting Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. Just kidding. Freakonomics is Baseball Prospectus for life -- the message: conventional wisdom is for suckers.
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