I don't recommend the Stephen Dubner book Freakonomics about Steven Levitt. My problem with the book is that Levitt's work in empirical economics is brilliant and easily accessible; Dubner does a masterful journalistic job of making it banal.
There was one story in the book I
loved. It is about the rapid growth of the Ku Klux Klan (the name
comes from the Scots-Irish muddle of 'kuklux' for circle) just after
WWII. This growth was stopped by one man who joined the Klan
intending to destroy it. He was Stetson Kennedy. Kennedy's success
was in learning the entire structure of the Klan, the names of all
titles, like the Klabee for treasurer, the Klexer for outer guard of
a local meeting and the various passwords used nationally like Mr.
Ayak and Mr. Akai.
Kennedy, ingeniously talked the producers of the most popular national kids radio program, Superman (I listened to those programs) into using all the Klan secrets in a series of programs where Superman destroyed the Klan.
Membership quickly fell to a trivial level after Superman and Stetson Kennedy destroyed it with ridicule.