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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.
