George,

The go to book on reconstruction has been Eric Foner’s “Reconstruction, America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877.” I would also recommend William Gillette’s, “Retreat from Reconstruction 1869-1879,” and Dan T. Carter’s, “When the War Was Over- The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South 1865-1867.”

There is a lot which goes into Reconstruction and the rise of the Klan- political, social, and economic. From a personal aspect, my family is from Pulaski, Tennessee where the Klan first started. My McClellan ancestors in Limestone County Alabama formed the Athens Klan and rode with them for awhile during its first few years. My great-aunt, Susan Lawrence Davis, wrote the “Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan 1865-1877.” In her book, and in the family letters, they talk about the Klan being formed in Athens to protect the women and children from marauding Yankees, freed slaves, and others who were attacking their citizens.