‘Life of a Klansman’ review: a hood in the closet

A personal, conflictive history of New Orleans during Reconstruction. "In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball reconstructs the life of his great-great-grandfather Polycarp Constant Lecorgne (1832-86), a white French Creole working-class carpenter who lived in New Orleans. Born to a mother from a plantation-owning family and a father who had deserted from the French navy, Lecorgne watched his parents' fortune wax and wane on the back of the slave trade." W. Ralph Eubanks reviews Ball's book for The Wall Street Journal.