Birth of a Nation

Portraying the Ku Klux Klan as heroic underdogs, silent epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) is widely considered to be the most controversial film of all time. At once one of US culture''s greatest artistic achievements and one of its most abhorrently racist artefacts, it becomes more shocking with every passing year.

Comprising a decade of archival research and published on the 100th anniversary of...