Kelly J. Baker, a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, published “Robes, Fiery Crosses, and the American Flag: The Material Christianity and Intolerance of the 1920s Klan” as the cover article in the November 2011 issue of the journal Material Religion. The article documents and analyzes the material artifacts of the 1920s Klan and their religious expression.
The article accompanies her recently published book, Gospel According to the Klan: The Ku Klux Klan’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930 (CultureAmerica, University Press of Kansas, September 2011). The book traces the development of the Klan’s Christian nationalism and interrogates the place of religion in nationalism both in the 1920s and today. The book has received positive press, both online and in print, including in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Baker’s training is in American Religious History. Her research covers religious intolerance in the U.S., gender and religion, material culture, apocalypticism, and religion and popular culture. In addition to Material Religion, she has published in Arc and Studies in World Christianity. She is a founding editor of the award-winning Religion in American History blog. She regularly contributes to this blog, in additional to other online blogs on religion, history and popular culture. She is currently working on projects involving apocalypticism and religious consumption.