In the personal and frank Confessions of a Free Speech Lawyer, Rodney A. Smolla offers an insider's view on the violent confrontations in Charlottesville during the "summer of hate." Blending memoir, courtroom drama, and a consideration of the unhealed wound of racism in our society, he shines a light on the conflict between the value of free speech and the protection of civil rights.

Smolla has spent his career in the thick of these tempestuous and fraught issues, from acting as lead counsel in a famous Supreme Court decision challenging Virginia's law against burning crosses, to serving as co-counsel in a libel suit brought by a fraternity against Rolling Stone magazine for publishing an article alleging that one of the fraternity's initiation rituals included gang rape.

Well before the tiki torches cast their ominous shadows across the nation, the city of Charlottesville sought to relocate the Unite the Right rally; Smolla was approached to represent the alt-right groups. Though he declined, he came to wonder what his history of advocacy had wrought. Feeling unsettlingly complicit, he joined the Charlottesville Task Force, and he realized that the events that transpired there had meaning and resonance far beyond a singular time and place.

The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"This book should be read by everyone from Supreme Court Justices to high school students." (Nadine Strossen, former president, American Civil Liberties Union)

"This is a terrific book that uses Charlottesville as a lens to look at larger issues with regard to speech and race." (Erwin Chemerinsky, Berkeley Law)

"A remarkable book combining history, personal experience, social commentary, and courtroom drama." (Timothy Zick, William & Mary Law School)