Thomas Dixon's the clansman: Radicals, reactionaries, and the anticipated utopia

Abstract

Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s novel, The Clansman (1905), typically is described as a boorish example of white racism. In this essay, I argue that the significance of The Clansman is a consequence of the novel's description of post‐Civil War Southern Reconstruction, where a dystopic social and political order was overthrown by the determined action of racially unified Anglo‐Saxons. The negation of this dystopia also anticipates Dixon's vision of Utopia, where Aryans North and South unite to protect their racial heritage. This study (a) reveals the limitations of extant generic guidelines for identifying Utopian discourse and (b) reconsiders the conventional categories (e.g., “radical,” “reactionary") frequently used to describe public discourse. The implications of this argument should be of particular interest to students of social movements.