Considering recommendations from the CDC, Michael Signer will be in conversation with author Frank DiStefano in a Facebook Live discussion of his new book Cry Havoc. Join us for this interactive conversation and order a copy of your book from Left Bank Books to support authors and independent bookstores!
All you need to do to participate is log in to your personal Facebook account, go to Left Bank Books’ Facebook Page, “Like” the page, and wait for the livestream to begin on the page (you may need to refresh the page periodically until the stream begins).
Left Bank Books presents the former mayor of Charlottesville, Michael Signer, who delivers a vivid, first-person chronicle of the terror and mayhem of the August 2017 “Unite the Right” event, and shows how issues of extremism are affecting not just one city but the nation itself in his new book, Cry Havoc.
The deadly invasion of Charlottesville, Virginia, by white nationalist militias in August 2017 is a microcosm of the challenges facing American democracy today. In his first-person account of one of recent American history’s most polarizing events, Michael Signer, then Charlottesville’s mayor, both tells the story of what really happened and draws out its larger significance.
Signer’s gripping, strikingly candid “you are there” narrative sets the events on the ground-the lead-up to August’s “Unite the Right” rally, the days of the weekend itself, the aftermath-in the larger context of a country struggling to find its way in a disruptive new era. He confronts some of the most challenging questions of our moment, namely how can we:
- Reconcile free speech with the need for public order?
- Maintain the values of pragmatism, compromise, even simple civility, in a time of intensification of extremes on the right and the left?
- Address systemic racism through our public spaces and memorials?
- Provide accountability after a crisis?
While Signer shows how easily our communities can be taken hostage by forces intent on destroying democratic norms and institutions, he concludes with a stirring call for optimism, revealing how the tragic events of Charlottesville are also bolstering American democracy from within.