Daniel Kilbride is professor of history and director of the Honors Program at John Carroll University. Professor Daniel Kildride discusses his article, “Cannibals, Gorillas, and the Struggle over Radical Reconstruction.” By examining best selling travel books of explorers and missionaries in Africa the current events of the 1850-1870s take on a new racist tone. How sensational tales of cannibalism and brutality sold books and tickets on the lecture circuit to how Darwin's Origin of the Species helped spur a national "gorilla fever," Prof. Kilbride illustrates how these pop culture moments defined the contours of racist points against Radial Reconstruction and established talking points to this day.