I remember watching the wall-to-wall news coverage of the Unite the Right demonstrations and subsequent mass turnout of counterprotestors in Charlottesville. The intensely emotional experience of being a (distant) bystander was a pivotal experience in my political development. Deborah Baker's Charlottesville offers a history of these events, including months of contextual events.

The book focuses especially on the context and lead up to the arrival of the alt-right coalition in Charlottesville, including community-wide debates about the fate of early 20th century pro-Confederate Civil War monuments. There was so much I didn't know about the months leading up to August 2017, including prior smaller far-right demonstrations opposing the removal of the Confederate monuments and disturbing (if unsurprising) police response to counterprotestors at a Klan rally that spring. I was especially struck by the slow online spread of the issue to various far-right factions, Richard Spencer's methodical acts of escalating provocation, and the organization of the Unite the Right faction (which I found to be an ominous predecessor of the far right's organization of the January 6, 2021, Stop the Steal rally and coup attempt).

I also found the sections focusing on the development of local and regional community organizers over the course of spring 2017 particularly compelling, including the role of various interfaith leaders and the monitoring of online alt-right spaces to monitor and prepare for the growing threat to their community.

Given the compelling focus on the context and lead up, the book's account of the actual Unite the Right demonstrations feels somewhat uneven. The eyewitness account of student counterprotestors on the night of the August 11 torch rally and the fear at the nearby interfaith prayer service are deeply affecting. However, I found the book's account of the events of August 12 difficult to follow. It felt somewhat sparse, and I struggled to align the written narrative with the chaotic video footage I remember watching live on the news. I believe the scope of these events are difficult to transcribe, given the sheer mass of different narrative threads, so I wasn't able to make clearer sense of my memory of the contemporaneous news footage.

The book's greatest strength is in answering "how did this happen" and identifying the multiple failures of government leadership at multiple levels to appropriately prepare and respond to the arrival of the violent, hateful Unite the Right demonstrators. It offers crucial understanding of a pivotal moment in American political life.

This one is really personal for me. I was a UVA student from 2015-2019. I was there for the July 8th KKK rally and the August 12th rally. I was immediately interested in this book, but I'm not sure what I expected it to do for me. No matter what, I'm glad I read it.

The history of the events leading up to Unite the Right are familiar to me. The best thing I can say about this new report is all of the valuable, painstaking background research on Virginia and Charlottesville and its history of white supremacy that the author has produced. That really added important context to the events of August 12th and its aftermath. I especially appreciated how the author privileges from the beginning the vastly overlooked perspectives of Charlottesville's Black community. That was the right move to tell this story.

The biggest disadvantage this book has, for me personally, is how it reads like the author is learning all of this for the first time herself. I think that's a perfectly respectable way to research and recount a work of non-fiction. But the abundance of details, at times the overabundance of details, did not make for a more impactful or complete story. The characterization of real people, by the use of proper titles and nicknames, was also a bit off-putting. I did learn a lot from this book, but at the same time, I feel like my own experience of these events eclipsed what I could learn from reading about it from a more detached perspective.

This is a truly important story that set the tone for the first Trump administration, that presaged the January 6th riot, and that has continued unabated in our present moment. But, for me personally, it was not an effective or affective way of telling this story. It's a very difficult story to tell.

I would encourage everyone to read this because of how well it introduces and engages with the idea of contemporary white supremacy in small-town Virginia and America at large.

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 than a book about history, and that made it a bit of a slog at times.

Baker does a good job spotlighting the voices of Charlottesville residents- activists, clergy, city leaders - who saw the storm coming and tried to do something about it. She also connects the events to a similar chapter from the 1950s, when another white supremacist came to town looking to cause chaos. The parallels are uncomfortable, to say the least.

I definitely came away knowing more than I did going in, but it was a heavy read. Maybe if I'd picked it up at a different time, in a different political climate, it would've landed differently. Still, it's a thoughtful and important book - even if it's not the easiest to get through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Graywolf Press for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. This book should be required reading.

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