Charlottesville: An American Story

(Hardback)

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Description

In August 2017, over a thousand neo-Nazis, fascists, Klan members, and neo-Confederates descended on a small southern city to protest the pending removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Within an hour of their arrival, the city's historic downtown was a scene of bedlam as armored far-right cadres battled activists in the streets. Before the weekend was over, a neo-Nazi had driven a car into a throng of counterprotesters, killing a young woman and injuring dozens. Pulitzer Prize finalist Deborah Baker has written a riveting and panoptic account of what unfolded that weekend, focusing less on the rally's far-right leaders than on the story of the city itself. University, local, and state officials, including law enforcement, were unable or unwilling to grasp the gathering threat. Clergy, activists, and organizers from all walks of life saw more clearly what was coming and, at great personal risk, worked to warn and defend their city. To understand why their warnings fell on deaf ears, Baker does a deep dive into American history. In her research she discovers an uncannily similar event that took place decades before when an emissary of the poet and fascist Ezra Pound arrived in Charlottesville intending to start a race war. In Charlottesville, Baker shows how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over our nation's founding myths.

Reviews

"[Baker] shows how coordinated resistance against white supremacists both can work and will be required again in the coming years. A vivid account that capably illuminates the evils half-hidden under a flickering torch."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Captivating. . . . [Charlottesville] brings history and current events into illuminating dialogue."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Baker's research and eye for detail give Charlottesville the historical authority necessary for understanding the tragic events that occurred over those two days."--Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press

"Considering Charlottesville, are we looking into a mirror An abyss Answers are elusive, but Baker expertly limns prevailing anxieties. As she quotes one witness, 'America is Charlottesville now.'"--Brendan Driscoll, Booklist

"In Charlottesville, the brilliant biographer Deborah Baker turns her deep understanding of character and her researcher's eye to her hometown and the horrible events that unfolded there as fascism marched--and murdered--in August 2017. Baker offers us a new way of understanding the threat of the far right by surrounding it, in this heart-stopping and heartbreaking narrative, with a rich and complex story of how the everyday people of a small city fought for justice long before the tiki torches blazed. Charlottesville is essential history, reportage, and maybe how-to for all who care for that struggle."--Jeff Sharlet, NYT bestselling author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

"No work of nonfiction I have read over the past decade has moved me as much as Charlottesville. Seldom has one place and time come to stand so hauntingly for a country on the precipice of catastrophe. With the precision of a master pointillist painter, Deborah Baker puts human faces on the buried truths that imperil American democracy while also amplifying the unheeded voices of the kind of unsung citizens who may yet save it. A must-read feat of spellbinding storytelling that packs the power of prophetic truth."--Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

"No one has explained the struggle for contemporary America's soul as masterfully as Deborah Baker does in Charlottesville. Whether she's depicting the battles of ordinary citizens against provocateurs in the street or the pentimento effect of the past in the present, Baker puts her readers right there, on the spot. A family tragedy, a ghost story and a political thriller all at once, this book is a gripping and terrifying portrait of our time."--Deborah Cohen, author of Last Call at the Hotel Imperial

Praise for Deborah Baker

"[Baker] keeps the big events always in view, dramatizing and humanizing the workings of history...in a way a novelist would--by making it a story of individuals."--The Wall Street Journal

"Baker writes beautifully, and she's done ample research....She crafts memorable portraits of dynamic, flawed men and women."--San Francisco Chronicle

Author Bio

Deborah Baker is the author of A Blue Hand and The Last Englishmen. Her biography In Extremis was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and her book The Convert was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in New York and Charlottesville.