New grant for research into Nordic identity and the Ku Klux Klan

When the Ku Klux Klan reemerged in the United States during the 1920s, it became the largest social movement of its time. Its widespread influence rested on ideas of racial superiority, in which notions of “Nordic” ancestry played a defining role.

At the same time, immigrants from Northern Europe constituted a significant part of the American population, yet their relationship to the Klan and its ideology has received limited scholarly attention.

Reframing Nordicism and racial ideology

The project Under the White Hood: “Nordic colonizers,” Civilized Manhood, and the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, 1915–1933 (UNHOODED) examines how the idea of Nordic superiority was constructed and mobilized within the Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1933. By linking transatlantic histories of race, citizenship, and political thought, UNHOODED analyses the social and intellectual networks of so-called “Nordic colonizers” and their understandings of civilization and white manhood.

The project proceeds from the premise that first- and second-generation immigrants from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Germany developed a Nordic identity that aligned with the Klan’s racialized vision of American culture.

By tracing how these immigrant communities helped shape, and at times challenge, legislation and cultural practices that undermined democratic ideals of liberty and equality, the project offers new insights into the historical foundations of racism, migration, and political belonging in the United States.

Read more and see all research projects on the DFF website.