When white nationalists and their supporters clashed with counter-demonstrators in the college town of Charlottesville over the removal of a Confederate statue, resulting in the death of one anti-racist activist and the wounding of thirty-five more, a signal moment in American history was reached.
Suddenly, U.S. citizens who had previously thought of themselves as moderate began to wonder whether violence in defending their values against fellow citizens was not only an option, but a necessity¿whether the way American history has been commonly presented is not only unfair but inaccurate; whether the current President is to blame for the sudden visibility of white supremacist groups; and finally, whether a surge in racism and ultra-nationalism is irrevocably re-shaping the country.
Charlottesville: Before & Beyond untangles the meaning of the events that unfolded last August. Part One of the book documents and comments upon the immediate aftermath of the violence. Part Two addresses the context, both before and after, for interpreting the violence: essays reflect on the social and cultural landscape of the nation, the role of the media, and the logic of ¿punching Nazis in the face.¿
Including writing by Eric Anthamatten, Nicholas Baer, Wes Bellamy, Keval Bhatt, Vaughn A. Booker, Andrew Boyer, Maria Bucur, Jordan Dunn, Mindy Fullilove, Laura Goldblatt, Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, Maggie Hennefeld, Christopher Howard-Woods, Jeffrey Isaac, Michael Sasha King, Mitchell Kosters, Jared Loggins, Gordon Mantler, Marcus McCullough, Rachel McKinney, Julia Ott, Claire Potter, Isaac Ariail Reed, Neil Roberts, Melvin Rogers, Sanford Schram, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Michael Weinman, Leonard A. Williams, and Deva Woodly.

CHRIS HOWARD-WOODS is the Media Editor at Public Seminar, and B.A. candidate in philosophy at Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts.
COLIN LAIDLEY is an editor at Public Seminar and a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism at The New School.
MARYAM OMIDI is an editor at Public Seminar and an M.A. candidate in psychology at the New School for Social Research.
PUBLIC SEMINAR (publicseminar.org) is an online publishing project of The New School University in New York City.

Table of Contents
8 Preface, by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb & Claire Potter
10 Introduction, Christopher Howard-Woods
PART ONE
18 The Civil Rights Movement 2.0: A Message from the Vice Mayor of Charlottesville, Wes Bellamy
22 Charlottesville and Trump: David Duke Explains Neo-Nazi Violence to You, Jeffrey Isaac
24 Loss Beyond Destruction: Charlottesville Reveals the Failures of Loss, Jared Loggins
29 On Trump's Response to Charlottesville: Political Encounters and Ideological Evasions, Leonard A. Williams
33 Subverting the Symbols of White Supremacy: The Wolf and the Fox, Keval Bhatt
39 Learning from Charlottesville Before and After "Unite the Right": Misrepresentation, Misrecognition, and Statue Politics, Michael Weinman
55 What We Really Learned in Charlottesville: Finding a Way Forward, Andrew Boyer
64 Jefferson's Two Bodies: Interpretations of a Statue at the University
of Virginia, Isaac Ariail Reed
85 Is it Time for the Kneeling Freedman Statue to Go? Remolding our Political Aesthetics, Gordon Mantler
91 Aristotle on Charlottesville: 'Mixed Actions' and Exercising Judgement on Violence, Michael Weinman
97 Remembering Romanian Fascism; Worrying About America: Losing Our Moral Compass between Past and Future, Maria Bucur
103 Thinking After Charlottesville: A Meditation on More of the Same, Marcus McCullough
PART TWO
112 The False God of Nationalism, Vaughn A. Booker
116 Russia is Our Friend: The Alt-Right, Trump and the Transformation of the Republican Party, Sanford Schram
121 Being There, Separate and Unequal: Charlottesville in the Mediated Public Sphere, Jeffrey C. Goldfarb
131 The False Premises of Alt-Right Ideology: Academics Must Understand How the Alt-Right Sees the World if We Are to Resist It, Rachel McKinney
137 Prophets of Deceit: Post-Truth Politics and the Future of the Left, Nicholas Baer and Maggie Hennefeld
156 White Supremacy, Fear and the Crises of Legitimation: Reflections on the Mistrial in the Murder Case of Walter Scott and the Election of Donald Trump, Melvin Rogers
162 Authoritarianism and Civilization: Du Bois, Davis, and Trump, Neil Roberts
167 Sitting to Stand: Protest, Patriotism, and the Endurance of White Supremacy, Michael Sasha King
181 #BlackLivesMatter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements: What Active Citizenship Can Look Like and What It Can Accomplish, Deva Woodly
192 Escaping the Logic(s) of White Supremacy: The Practice of Oppositional Thought, Mitchell Kosters
197 Slaves: The Capital that Made Capitalism, Julia Ott
208 Punching Nazis in the Face: A Philosopher Makes the Case for Violent Resistance, Eric Anthamatten