Deborah Baker's 'Charlottesville' reveals essence of the new American right

The new American right is a Hydra-headed monster. Mr Trump isn't its cause, but its distilled essence

Charlottesville: A study of rage and resistance

by Deborah Baker

Published by Penguin Random House

442 pages ₹1,299 

Charlottesville in the Commonwealth of Virginia is a city of about 50,000, evenly divided among white and black residents.  It is among the oldest cities in the state, with great historical significance.  Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States and its third President, is just outside the city.  Jefferson’s successor as President, James Madison, the “father of the Constitution,” and the author of the Virginia Compromise, which equated electorally five freed slaves to three white persons, was