This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.
The North Carolina carpetbagger Albion Winegar Tourgee came to the South in 1865 after serving as a Union volunteer during the Civil War. His struggles in the cause of civil rights led him to take part in the political reorganisation of the region. However, in 1879, Tourgee despaired of his efforts in the South and returned to the North. There he published A Fool’s Errand, a largely autobiographical novel that depicted a southern society dominated by the Ku Klux Klan and riddled with racism, ignorance, and corrupt policies. Within a year of the release of A Fool’s Errand, Tourgee published The Invisible Empire, a nonfiction account of his years in the South intended to buttress the portrait of Reconstruction southern society he had depicted in his novel.
The Invisible Empire investigates white supremacy as it emerged from the milieu of slavery, war, politics, and Reconstruction. Tourgee argues that organisations such as the Klan appealed to the mass of white southerners as a means of ameliorating their defeat and ensuring a measure of political control. He describes that Klan as the produce of southern hostility toward
any and all things
associated with the uplifting of the black population. Tourgee’s efforts in his books and in his life, were aimed at undermining racism and promoting egalitarian and democratic ideals.
This reprint of The Invisible Empire brings to light a book that will interest scholars and general readers alike. It is a striking, contemporary look into the mind of the carpetbagger and the genesis of both the Ku Klux Klan and the political structure of the postwar South. Otto H. Olsen’s introduction and notes place the work in its proper historical and literary context. His analysis of the documentary evidence supplied by various reliable sources gives Tourgee’s narrative a more solid historical basis than it has heretofore had.
