Fergus M. Bordewich’s "KLAN WAR: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction," a stunning account of President Grant’s federal campaign against the Ku Klux Klan from 1865 and onward. Bordewich defines the KKK as “the first organized terrorist movement in American history” and his book depicts in detail the rise of the Klan in the wake of the Civil War, with haunting parallels to the violent intimidation we see from radical insurrectionists and white supremacists today.

In "KLAN WAR," Bordewich transports us to the hamlets of former Confederate states and portrays in unflinching detail the horrific acts of the Klan against newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies. At the same time, he depicts the political battle Grant fought in Washington, D.C., as he worked with grassroots Black leaders and leveraged the power of the federal government against politicians in the North and South alike, whether they were seduced by visions of postwar conciliation or outright enemies of Reconstruction.

The book is a bracing record of America’s past that reveals the bloody roots of present-day battles to protect voter rights and stamp out white supremacist ideologies. Bordewich combines his sharp assessment of the Klan with a detailed depiction of Grant’s political maneuvers as he sought to dismantle them, resulting in a history that is essential for understanding America today.