Charlottesville, Deborah Baker
Charlottesville, Deborah Baker
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Charlottesville

Author: Deborah Baker

Narrator: Dipti Singh

Unabridged: 15 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2026

Synopsis

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 counter-protesters, 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 a nation’s founding myths.

About The Author

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

Reviews

Goodreads review by Todd on March 12, 2025

Charlottesville is packed full of details that help to explain the systemic racism that we can't seem to move beyond. There were so many different factions involved in the events of August 2017 that converged, collided and exploded that left many unanswered questions. Baker has done an amazing job o......more

Goodreads review by Harry on June 30, 2025

I think the aim of this book is admirable, but I didn’t feel as though there was an argument here. What do you want to say with a book like this which spans over a hundred year history, and doesn’t end, in my opinion, with a take or a rationale. Good job summarizing the history of far right discours......more

Goodreads review by Ashby on July 20, 2025

Deborah Baker's Charlottesville takes a hard look at the 2017 Unite the Right rally - and the messy, painful history that set the stage for it. It's well-researched, well-written, and full of the kind of context that the news coverage lacked. But I'll be honest: it reads more like a history textbook......more

Goodreads review by Ted on August 31, 2025

The way she attempted to blackwash statistics on violent crime felt so incredibly warm and compelling. Also, one of her subject's comparison of Trayvoon Martin to Jesus rang truer than the Liberty Bell. After all, Jesus wandered around assaulting random people for messing with his swag.......more

Goodreads review by CB_Read on July 21, 2025

This one is really personal for me. I was immediately interested in this book, but I'm not sure what I expected it to do for me. I'm glad I read it, but much of it didn't sit right with me. The best thing I can say about this new report is all of the valuable, painstaking background research on Virgi......more

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