The name Nathan Bedford Forrest stirs conflicting emotions among those acquainted with his history. Here he is presented as a man of many passions and abilities, a man who, faced with financial ruin at the end of the Civil War and the destruction of the world he had known, could adapt and embrace new visions. Dispelling several myths surrounding the historical figure, this book is a study of the complete Forrest and examines his life during Reconstruction and his famous organization of the Ku Klux Klan.