Otto H. Olsen – författare

The North Carolina carpetbagger Albion Winegar Tourgée 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, Tourgée 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, Tourgée 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. Tourgée 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. Tourgée'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 Tourgée's narrative a more solid historical basis than it has heretofore had.

Albion W. Tourgée, a former Union officer from Ohio, came to North Carolina in search of economic opportunity after the collapse of the Confederacy. A young man and a fearless advocate of freedmen's rights, he soon became a radical Republican leader and a prominent figure in local politics.After he quit the South in 1874, Tourgée published a succession of novels and stories which made him famous. Bricks Without Straw, one of his two best-selling novels, is not only a moving story but an important commentary on the Reconstruction process in the South.This new edition of the book remains faithful to the original, which appeared in 1880. In his introduction, Profession Otto H. Olsen gives a comprehensive evaluation of the book and its author, and their impact on the era of Reconstruction.Tourgée was an astute and reliable observer of the Reconstruction scene. In Bricks Without Straw he concentrated on the problems and the continuing dilemma of freed slaves. Led by Nimbus Ware, a ""good enough nigger but might aggravating to the white folk,"" and Eliab Hill, a crippled mulatto preacher, former slaves begin their postwar experience by availing themselves of the educational, economic, and political opportunities of freedom. But as soon as federal protection is withdrawn, their existence becomes precarious in the face of the Ku Klux Klan and resentful southern whites.The novel conveys a true sense of the trials and accomplishments of a severely handicapped black population caught in the oppressive racist environment of the postwar South. But, as Professor Olsen points out, the book's pioneering, and still pertinent, literary achievement is its repudiation of racist stereotypes and its effective portrayal of the essential humanity of the freed black slaves.