Wyn Craig Wade (1944–2006)

Informative and terrifying. I wish I could compel my family and friends to read this because white people need to understand that the Klan isn't dead, it just goes through boom-and-bust cycles of death and revival based on the social, cultural, and economic circumstances of the present moment. The extent to which this book demonstrates this narrative is its most valuable asset, in my opinion.

Wyn Craig Wade's The Fiery Cross purports to be a history of the Klan. It has received generally favorable reviews but critical examination reveals several significant flaws in the work.

Wade was a clinical psychologist who holds no degree in history. His only prior work was a book on the Titanic which received virtually no attention whatsoever. He apparently left his psychology to teach classes in writing.

I've taken particular exception to this book based on its attempt to smear the name of show more Albert Pike, leader of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the last half of the 19th Century.

Wade states:

"After the Klan had spread outward from Tennessee, there wasn't the slightest chance of central control over it - a problem that would characterize the Klan throughout its long career. Prominent Southern gentlemen were later cited as state leaders of the Invisible Empire. Alabama claimed General John T. Morgan as Grand Dragon. Arkansas was headed by General Albert Pike, explorer and poet. North Carolina was led by former governor Zebulon Vance, and Georgia by General John B. Gordon, later a U. S. Senator."

Please note that Wade does not say WHO they were LATER CITED by....

"But the leadership of these men, originally appointed by Memphis officials, was usually in name only and nowhere lasted longer than 1869; such experienced veterans quickly realized the impossibility of governing in secret such widespread bands of young hellions and wanted no responsibility for it."

Such sweeping statements lead me to question the scholarship in the rest of the work.

Regrettably, Wade doesn't put his footnotes for his claims in an interlinear manner. All references are simply listed in the back of the book with a page number and a list of books. It's impossible to tell what information on a page is supported by citation and what isn't. We've never seen a reference work (or any other book, actually) with references done in this manner. It certainly isn't APA, ALA, or any other accepted academic format.

The references to KLAN LEADERS are cited as Stanley Horn, The Invisible Empire and Susan Davis Authentic History: Ku Klux Klan, 1865-1877. Neither of these books offers any proof of any of their claims about Pike. No citations are provided in either book.

Again, unsupportable claims furnished to defame a long-deceased individual and Freemasonry. show less

Still considered the bedrock text of Klan history, it feels a bit dated 25 years in.

A dated but still useful history of the Ku Klux Klan, from its early beginnings under General Nathan Bedford Forrest through the high tide of the 1920s and beyond. Some suprising figures appear throughout the narrative, providing interesting insights on later events. Recommended.