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The Demon of Unrest
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston: Fort Sumter.
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”
At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.
Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston: Fort Sumter.
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”
At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.
Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.
565 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2024
About the author
Erik Larson
32 books67.7k followersErik Larson is the author of nine books and one audio-only novella. His latest book, The Demon of Unrest, is a non-fiction thriller about the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Six of his books became New York Times bestsellers. Two of these, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His chronicle of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. It lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade and is currently in development at Disney Studios. Erik’s In the Garden of Beasts, about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, is currently in development with StudioCanal and Playtone.
Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
His audio novella, No One Goes Alone, while a work of fiction, is a ghost story based on real-life events and characters, including famed 19th-century psychologist William James. Erik refers to it as a ghost story with footnotes.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and other publications.
He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, “could make a stone cry.” They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time.
Erik’s first book of narrative nonfiction, Isaac’s Storm, about the giant hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900, won the American Meteorology Society’s prestigious Louis J. Battan Author’s Award. The Washington Post called it the “Jaws of hurricane yarns.” Erik is particularly pleased to have won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
His audio novella, No One Goes Alone, while a work of fiction, is a ghost story based on real-life events and characters, including famed 19th-century psychologist William James. Erik refers to it as a ghost story with footnotes.
He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Russian history, language and culture; he received a masters in journalism from Columbia University. After a brief stint at the Bucks County Courier Times, Erik became a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, and later a contributing writer for Time Magazine. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and other publications.
He has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, the University of Oregon, and the Chuckanut Writers Conference in Bellingham, Wash., and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. A former resident of Seattle, he now lives in Manhattan with his wife, a neonatologist, who is also the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, “could make a stone cry.” They have three daughters in far-flung locations and professions. Their beloved dog Molly resides in an urn on a shelf overlooking Central Park, where they like to think she now spends most of her time.
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May 29, 2024Eric Larson releasing a Lincoln Civil War history right before Father's Day in the US is a publishing slam dunk.
Bookstore jokes aside I’ve always been impressed how Larson is accessible for everyone (not just dads either) in really engaging ways to learn cool history. Just kind of a fan of him as a personality in publishing which I really appreciate as a librarian. He definitely can drive sales so also a fan of him as a bookstore employee too.
Bookstore jokes aside I’ve always been impressed how Larson is accessible for everyone (not just dads either) in really engaging ways to learn cool history. Just kind of a fan of him as a personality in publishing which I really appreciate as a librarian. He definitely can drive sales so also a fan of him as a bookstore employee too.
July 8, 2024
Larson begins his new book by saying, “I was well into my research on the saga of Fort Sumter and the advent of the American Civil War when the events of January 6, 2021, took place.” This is, to my recollection, the only time he refers explicitly to that day in the book, but J6 — indeed, the entirety of the Trump years (in which we are still living) — is a presence on every page, not least when Larson describes the urgent concerns officials had that the electoral count to certify Lincoln's election would be disrupted, the certifications stolen or destroyed, and the capitol attacked by angry Americans.
As Larson demonstrated in his other books (bestsellers all), he has an eye for the telling detail and interesting character. “Demon of Unrest” takes these skills to a new level. It brings to vivid life the period between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the firing on Fort Sumter. Most readers will probably go in thinking they know the basics of the event: Lincoln got elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union, it fired on Fort Sumter, and the Civil War began. Larson shows how much more there is to the story. The broader picture is there, to be sure: the debates, threats over secession, how people and politicians reacted to it, key events, and so on. What truly distinguishes “Demon” is its focus on the day-to-day details: the letters, arguments, diary entries, conversations, etc., that participants and observers shared, the doubts they entertained or the outrage they nurtured, the ego, ambition, delusion, and frustration. In short, how real people reacted at every step of the way -- those who sought to prevent war, those who eagerly worked to provoke it, and those caught in the middle.
Each section of the book is introduced with an excerpt from the Code Duello, the rules governing how duels are to be conducted. It’s a fitting device, given how critical dueling and honor were in shaping Southern attitudes. Larson shows us time and again how badly the North and South understood each other, how vastly different their cultures were and the effect those differences played in how events unfolded. The importance of Honor was a particularly powerful force in shaping Southern thought. For them, Northern attitudes about slavery (which was central to both the South's economy and its culture) were not policy differences but attacks on their Honor.
Larson writes very early on, “At the heart of the story is a mystery that still confounds: How on earth did South Carolina, a primitive, scantily populated state in economic decline, become the fulcrum for America’s greatest tragedy?” Then he proceeds to provide an answer to the question. South Carolina had 110,000 more enslaved people than it did whites. Fear of a slave uprising was perpetually in the minds of its white citizens and had been for many decades. The raid on Harper’s Ferry by John Brown in 1859 brought made that fear burn white hot. Southerners were constantly on edge. Northern criticisms of slavery were seen to not only as attacks on their honor and values but also as feeding an existential threat. The result of all this: As one South Carolinian — James Petigru, a Unionist who ultimately voted for secession -- is said to have put it, “South Carolina is too small for a Republic, and too big for an insane asylum.”
Larson puts flesh on the bare bones of our historical imaging of that fraught time. There's Charleston, South Carolina, for example, site of Fort Sumter. In the minds of readers today, it’s likely no more than an historical place name. Or we envision as it is today, with palmettos and magnolias and magnificent oaks. The picture of antebellum Charleston Larson shows us is quite different: “As you walk the streets of Charleston,” he writes, “rows of greedy vultures, with sapient look, sit on the parapets of the houses, watching for offal.” The vultures were so valuable in cleaning filthy streets that they were protected by law: anyone caught killing one was subject to a ten-dollar fine. And then there were the slave markets — visible to the public at one time, hidden out of sight at another, then out in the open again. There are wealthy plantation owners and their slaves, hotheads, unionists, and free Blacks anxiously hurrying home as curfew neared.
Larson shares many telling glimpses into Southern culture of the time. The highest echelons of South Carolina saw themselves as aristocracy, chevaliers, paragons of elegance. As the drama surrounding Ft Sumter is playing out, a ball is held in Charleston. One attendee glowingly described the ball goers as “very select” and “none but the higher classes.” At least one other person who was there that night saw things differently: British author, Margaret Hunter Hall, found the event less than stellar. The gentlemen were “very second-rate,” she wrote in her book, The Aristocratic Journey. As for the women: “I never in my life saw so many ugly women gathered together.”
To explore how the secession crisis was experienced, Larson goes back and forth from Charleston and Ft. Sumter to Washington, following various individuals as they make their way through the growing tension and uncertainty. Up in Washington City (the U.S. capital’s formal name until it became the District of Columbia in 1871), a well-out-of-his-depth President Buchanan is procrastinating. “His great hope,” we read, “seemed to be by temporizing to avoid an issue before the 4th March.” He meets regularly with members of his Cabinet to talk about what to do — particularly as the threat to Fort Sumter grows larger — oblivious to the fact that while these discussion as being held, one member of his Cabinet is secretly trying to ship arms to the South and another is feeding Southern leaders information about what’s being suggested and planned.
Buchanan, in turns out, is not only feckless in dealing with the crisis, he’s also oblivious to its seriousness. Larson writes of a conversation Buchanan has with Georgia Senator Robert Toombs about Fort Sumter before any shots have been fired: ““But Mr. Toombs, why do you ask?” “Because Sir my State has a deep interest in the decision.” This perplexed Buchanan. “How your state—what is it to Georgia whether a fort in Charleston harbor is abandoned?” “Sir,” Toombs answered, “the cause of Charleston is the cause of the South.” “Good God Mr. Toombs, do you mean that I am in the midst of a revolution?” “Yes Sir—more than that—you have been there for a year and have not yet found it out.” “
Unsurprisingly, Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander, is a prominent figure in the book. He is a Southerner himself but is ever mindful of his honor as an officer in the US Army. In a letter to a friend he writes, “Like yourself my sympathies are in the matter of the sectional controversy all with the South, but I must confess that I have lost all sympathy with the people who govern this state. They are resolved to cement their secession with blood.”
Awful though his split allegiances might be, they are made infinitely worse by the complete absence of instructions from his superiors in the chain of command. Should he be preparing for battle? Will there be reinforcements? Or should he surrender the fort? He receives contradictory answers from Washington — when he gets any answers at all, which is the usual case. As Larson writes of Anderson’s frustration, “He found it inconceivable that at so sensitive a moment, with war in the wind, the government would leave such a fateful decision to him.” In time, newly elected President Lincoln will order reinforcements be sent to Summit and Fort Pickens in Florida, but he inadvertently assigns the same ship to both locations at the same time.
The book is populated by a fascinating cast of individuals: among them are Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln (Lincoln was cautiously silent before he was sworn in and quickly overwhelmed after), the ever-ambitious William Seward, Jefferson Davis, Abner Doubleday (also stationed at Sumter), bloodthirsty secessionist Edmund Ruffin, Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut, British journalist William Howard Russell, and many others. (Russell will be barred from visiting Army camps on both sides because of his reports on battles. It is from Russell too that we learn of the ubiquity of “chewing tobacco and its residues” in the country at that time. Spittoons were everywhere — really: everywhere! — but the floors were still covered with, well, exactly what you’d expect.)
Larson’s writing is, as ever, engaging and compulsively readable. We know, of course, what will happen at Sumter, but "Demon" enables us to watch events unfold on the ground, in Ft Sumter, in Charleston SC and Montgomery AL, Washington, Springfield IL, and elsewhere. Larson manages to make the story suspenseful. There are many things in the book I hadn’t known. None perhaps is as startling as the story of a (very) last ditch effort to avoid a civil war: a constitutional amendment proposed in the House by Rep. Thomas Corwin of Ohio and in the Senate by William Seward that guaranteed that Congress would not interfere with slavery where it currently existed… The House approved it by a vote of 133 to 65; the Senate likewise, 24 to 12. Lincoln later forwarded the proposed amendment, the original thirteenth, to all state governors… Only a few states would ultimately ratify the amendment before events made it irrelevant [by the attack on Ft. Sumter]. Known to future centuries as the Shadow or Ghost Amendment, it remained an active congressionally approved but unratified amendment into the twenty-first century, theoretically still open to a final vote by the states.
“Demon of Unrest” is full of such revelations, insights, and lively characters. I can say with complete confience that it will be a bestseller. And it will deserve to be.
My thanks to Crown Publishers and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
As Larson demonstrated in his other books (bestsellers all), he has an eye for the telling detail and interesting character. “Demon of Unrest” takes these skills to a new level. It brings to vivid life the period between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the firing on Fort Sumter. Most readers will probably go in thinking they know the basics of the event: Lincoln got elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union, it fired on Fort Sumter, and the Civil War began. Larson shows how much more there is to the story. The broader picture is there, to be sure: the debates, threats over secession, how people and politicians reacted to it, key events, and so on. What truly distinguishes “Demon” is its focus on the day-to-day details: the letters, arguments, diary entries, conversations, etc., that participants and observers shared, the doubts they entertained or the outrage they nurtured, the ego, ambition, delusion, and frustration. In short, how real people reacted at every step of the way -- those who sought to prevent war, those who eagerly worked to provoke it, and those caught in the middle.
Each section of the book is introduced with an excerpt from the Code Duello, the rules governing how duels are to be conducted. It’s a fitting device, given how critical dueling and honor were in shaping Southern attitudes. Larson shows us time and again how badly the North and South understood each other, how vastly different their cultures were and the effect those differences played in how events unfolded. The importance of Honor was a particularly powerful force in shaping Southern thought. For them, Northern attitudes about slavery (which was central to both the South's economy and its culture) were not policy differences but attacks on their Honor.
Larson writes very early on, “At the heart of the story is a mystery that still confounds: How on earth did South Carolina, a primitive, scantily populated state in economic decline, become the fulcrum for America’s greatest tragedy?” Then he proceeds to provide an answer to the question. South Carolina had 110,000 more enslaved people than it did whites. Fear of a slave uprising was perpetually in the minds of its white citizens and had been for many decades. The raid on Harper’s Ferry by John Brown in 1859 brought made that fear burn white hot. Southerners were constantly on edge. Northern criticisms of slavery were seen to not only as attacks on their honor and values but also as feeding an existential threat. The result of all this: As one South Carolinian — James Petigru, a Unionist who ultimately voted for secession -- is said to have put it, “South Carolina is too small for a Republic, and too big for an insane asylum.”
Larson puts flesh on the bare bones of our historical imaging of that fraught time. There's Charleston, South Carolina, for example, site of Fort Sumter. In the minds of readers today, it’s likely no more than an historical place name. Or we envision as it is today, with palmettos and magnolias and magnificent oaks. The picture of antebellum Charleston Larson shows us is quite different: “As you walk the streets of Charleston,” he writes, “rows of greedy vultures, with sapient look, sit on the parapets of the houses, watching for offal.” The vultures were so valuable in cleaning filthy streets that they were protected by law: anyone caught killing one was subject to a ten-dollar fine. And then there were the slave markets — visible to the public at one time, hidden out of sight at another, then out in the open again. There are wealthy plantation owners and their slaves, hotheads, unionists, and free Blacks anxiously hurrying home as curfew neared.
Larson shares many telling glimpses into Southern culture of the time. The highest echelons of South Carolina saw themselves as aristocracy, chevaliers, paragons of elegance. As the drama surrounding Ft Sumter is playing out, a ball is held in Charleston. One attendee glowingly described the ball goers as “very select” and “none but the higher classes.” At least one other person who was there that night saw things differently: British author, Margaret Hunter Hall, found the event less than stellar. The gentlemen were “very second-rate,” she wrote in her book, The Aristocratic Journey. As for the women: “I never in my life saw so many ugly women gathered together.”
To explore how the secession crisis was experienced, Larson goes back and forth from Charleston and Ft. Sumter to Washington, following various individuals as they make their way through the growing tension and uncertainty. Up in Washington City (the U.S. capital’s formal name until it became the District of Columbia in 1871), a well-out-of-his-depth President Buchanan is procrastinating. “His great hope,” we read, “seemed to be by temporizing to avoid an issue before the 4th March.” He meets regularly with members of his Cabinet to talk about what to do — particularly as the threat to Fort Sumter grows larger — oblivious to the fact that while these discussion as being held, one member of his Cabinet is secretly trying to ship arms to the South and another is feeding Southern leaders information about what’s being suggested and planned.
Buchanan, in turns out, is not only feckless in dealing with the crisis, he’s also oblivious to its seriousness. Larson writes of a conversation Buchanan has with Georgia Senator Robert Toombs about Fort Sumter before any shots have been fired: ““But Mr. Toombs, why do you ask?” “Because Sir my State has a deep interest in the decision.” This perplexed Buchanan. “How your state—what is it to Georgia whether a fort in Charleston harbor is abandoned?” “Sir,” Toombs answered, “the cause of Charleston is the cause of the South.” “Good God Mr. Toombs, do you mean that I am in the midst of a revolution?” “Yes Sir—more than that—you have been there for a year and have not yet found it out.” “
Unsurprisingly, Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander, is a prominent figure in the book. He is a Southerner himself but is ever mindful of his honor as an officer in the US Army. In a letter to a friend he writes, “Like yourself my sympathies are in the matter of the sectional controversy all with the South, but I must confess that I have lost all sympathy with the people who govern this state. They are resolved to cement their secession with blood.”
Awful though his split allegiances might be, they are made infinitely worse by the complete absence of instructions from his superiors in the chain of command. Should he be preparing for battle? Will there be reinforcements? Or should he surrender the fort? He receives contradictory answers from Washington — when he gets any answers at all, which is the usual case. As Larson writes of Anderson’s frustration, “He found it inconceivable that at so sensitive a moment, with war in the wind, the government would leave such a fateful decision to him.” In time, newly elected President Lincoln will order reinforcements be sent to Summit and Fort Pickens in Florida, but he inadvertently assigns the same ship to both locations at the same time.
The book is populated by a fascinating cast of individuals: among them are Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln (Lincoln was cautiously silent before he was sworn in and quickly overwhelmed after), the ever-ambitious William Seward, Jefferson Davis, Abner Doubleday (also stationed at Sumter), bloodthirsty secessionist Edmund Ruffin, Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut, British journalist William Howard Russell, and many others. (Russell will be barred from visiting Army camps on both sides because of his reports on battles. It is from Russell too that we learn of the ubiquity of “chewing tobacco and its residues” in the country at that time. Spittoons were everywhere — really: everywhere! — but the floors were still covered with, well, exactly what you’d expect.)
Larson’s writing is, as ever, engaging and compulsively readable. We know, of course, what will happen at Sumter, but "Demon" enables us to watch events unfold on the ground, in Ft Sumter, in Charleston SC and Montgomery AL, Washington, Springfield IL, and elsewhere. Larson manages to make the story suspenseful. There are many things in the book I hadn’t known. None perhaps is as startling as the story of a (very) last ditch effort to avoid a civil war: a constitutional amendment proposed in the House by Rep. Thomas Corwin of Ohio and in the Senate by William Seward that guaranteed that Congress would not interfere with slavery where it currently existed… The House approved it by a vote of 133 to 65; the Senate likewise, 24 to 12. Lincoln later forwarded the proposed amendment, the original thirteenth, to all state governors… Only a few states would ultimately ratify the amendment before events made it irrelevant [by the attack on Ft. Sumter]. Known to future centuries as the Shadow or Ghost Amendment, it remained an active congressionally approved but unratified amendment into the twenty-first century, theoretically still open to a final vote by the states.
“Demon of Unrest” is full of such revelations, insights, and lively characters. I can say with complete confience that it will be a bestseller. And it will deserve to be.
My thanks to Crown Publishers and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
June 18, 2024
Larson excels at research and at rendering his research to the reader in a well-written and fascinating manner.
The South was eager for war. Too eager. Their own president, Jeff Davis, a veteran, warned them a conflict with the North would ravage the South. But both sides fumbled and bumbled their way into a war without considering the consequences - misunderstandings, misapprehensions, miscalculations paved the way. There was dancing in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina when Fort Sumter in their harbor surrendered to Confederate artillery and war was declared. There was no dancing 1863/1864 as Southern victories dwindled, Sherman cut a swath of destruction through Georgia as he marched his army to the sea, and the Confederacy began to collapse.
Above all things, Southerners believed they lived a righteous lifestyle, one blessed by the Bible, and detested Lincoln and abolitionists to the point of hatred. Secession began in earnest with Lincoln’s election. The war ended slavery but it would take another hundred years for that to begin to become a significant reality for millions of African-Americans.
As you might have guessed, Larson began this project after the attack on the US Capitol building January 6, 2021. He saw America breaking into factions due to acute political differences and wondered what parallels there might be between 1861 and 2024. There were plenty, unfortunately. This becomes readily apparent to the reader as they work their way through this rather intense book.
Highly recommended and highly readable.
The South was eager for war. Too eager. Their own president, Jeff Davis, a veteran, warned them a conflict with the North would ravage the South. But both sides fumbled and bumbled their way into a war without considering the consequences - misunderstandings, misapprehensions, miscalculations paved the way. There was dancing in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina when Fort Sumter in their harbor surrendered to Confederate artillery and war was declared. There was no dancing 1863/1864 as Southern victories dwindled, Sherman cut a swath of destruction through Georgia as he marched his army to the sea, and the Confederacy began to collapse.
Above all things, Southerners believed they lived a righteous lifestyle, one blessed by the Bible, and detested Lincoln and abolitionists to the point of hatred. Secession began in earnest with Lincoln’s election. The war ended slavery but it would take another hundred years for that to begin to become a significant reality for millions of African-Americans.
As you might have guessed, Larson began this project after the attack on the US Capitol building January 6, 2021. He saw America breaking into factions due to acute political differences and wondered what parallels there might be between 1861 and 2024. There were plenty, unfortunately. This becomes readily apparent to the reader as they work their way through this rather intense book.
Highly recommended and highly readable.
May 22, 2024
5+++ stars!
And this is how it’s done!
I’ve never been a fan of most contemporary historical fiction. Why read fiction when the true story is riveting and rivals anything an author could imagine?
This book is the perfect example of narrative non-fiction at its finest.
Every word, every thought, every conversation is corroborated in the historical record, and Larson brings the characters to life for his readers. I was riveted from beginning to end, and felt I was living this time period alongside them.
Just as the author brought the events preceding WWII alive in his book, In The Garden of the Beasts, the author brings the events preceding the Civil War alive in this book.
I went into it thinking I knew the nuances and the history from the time prior to Lincoln’s election to the firing on Ft Sumter, the official beginning of the Civil War. I was wrong. My knowledge was incomplete.
What a treasure we have in Erik Larson. I can’t wait to see what he writes next.
* I received a digital review copy via NetGalley. It was also excellent on audio.
And this is how it’s done!
I’ve never been a fan of most contemporary historical fiction. Why read fiction when the true story is riveting and rivals anything an author could imagine?
This book is the perfect example of narrative non-fiction at its finest.
Every word, every thought, every conversation is corroborated in the historical record, and Larson brings the characters to life for his readers. I was riveted from beginning to end, and felt I was living this time period alongside them.
Just as the author brought the events preceding WWII alive in his book, In The Garden of the Beasts, the author brings the events preceding the Civil War alive in this book.
I went into it thinking I knew the nuances and the history from the time prior to Lincoln’s election to the firing on Ft Sumter, the official beginning of the Civil War. I was wrong. My knowledge was incomplete.
What a treasure we have in Erik Larson. I can’t wait to see what he writes next.
* I received a digital review copy via NetGalley. It was also excellent on audio.
April 18, 2024
The author actually compares January 6 protest to Ft. Sumter. What an absolutely delusional comparison showing a stunning inability to compare and contrast like a 6th grader. Evidently protestors getting police escorts around the Capitol on January 6 is the same as the full military engagement of Ft. Sumter. Would have expected something more scholarly, but that was obviously too much to ask.
July 13, 2024
“I invite you now to step into the past.”
I have always appreciated Larson for his storytelling. The non-fiction writer who writes as if it we were reading a suspense novel waiting for the climatic moment to occur. Only he isn’t writing a fiction novel, he is writing about truth in history – a time in the past that we get to live within the pages. We are just feeling it and experiencing it as if it were alive and real and happening to us in real time. Only it is history playing out for us, not a suspense novel.
Unfortunately, as the author begins writing this story, he finds himself in a conundrum as he compares the Civil War to January 6, 2021. He shares that he is “appalled” but also “riveted” by “today’s political discord, which incredibly has led some benighted Americans to whisper of secession and civil war.” Did those same people on January 6, 2021 really know what they were talking about when they spoke about what it was like during the Civil War?
As always, Larson’s research takes us there. This story covers a five-month period, the drama between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the attack and surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
Larson has a way with his narrative that takes us directly to the past. Plopping us within the setting and making us feel present.
However, as thorough as his research is, this wasn’t his best book, for me. Even as I took my time reading it, in-between my other novels.
Black Americans and Abolitionists are hardly mentioned. You would think this would be important considering the time in history. Still, I recognize the author has chosen to limit his book to a five-month time period. And, the focus on Fort Sumter. Is that his excuse? But still, it seemed that a lot of past history characters are hardly fleshed out, and that has not been typical of the author in his past books. Obviously, I am conflicted here.
If anything, maybe this book will open the door for readers to be curious about the Civil War and want to explore other history books.
Also, there is undoubtedly good history to be read here, with sources, acknowledgments and a vast bibliography, notes and index that takes us to 565 total pages. And, no doubt a reminder that we need not want to repeat history again.
By the end of this book, we can’t help but question ourselves in today’s world, because that is where we live…
Are we indeed heading towards a civil war of differences politically that could lead to real bloodshed again?
I have always appreciated Larson for his storytelling. The non-fiction writer who writes as if it we were reading a suspense novel waiting for the climatic moment to occur. Only he isn’t writing a fiction novel, he is writing about truth in history – a time in the past that we get to live within the pages. We are just feeling it and experiencing it as if it were alive and real and happening to us in real time. Only it is history playing out for us, not a suspense novel.
Unfortunately, as the author begins writing this story, he finds himself in a conundrum as he compares the Civil War to January 6, 2021. He shares that he is “appalled” but also “riveted” by “today’s political discord, which incredibly has led some benighted Americans to whisper of secession and civil war.” Did those same people on January 6, 2021 really know what they were talking about when they spoke about what it was like during the Civil War?
As always, Larson’s research takes us there. This story covers a five-month period, the drama between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the attack and surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
Larson has a way with his narrative that takes us directly to the past. Plopping us within the setting and making us feel present.
However, as thorough as his research is, this wasn’t his best book, for me. Even as I took my time reading it, in-between my other novels.
Black Americans and Abolitionists are hardly mentioned. You would think this would be important considering the time in history. Still, I recognize the author has chosen to limit his book to a five-month time period. And, the focus on Fort Sumter. Is that his excuse? But still, it seemed that a lot of past history characters are hardly fleshed out, and that has not been typical of the author in his past books. Obviously, I am conflicted here.
If anything, maybe this book will open the door for readers to be curious about the Civil War and want to explore other history books.
Also, there is undoubtedly good history to be read here, with sources, acknowledgments and a vast bibliography, notes and index that takes us to 565 total pages. And, no doubt a reminder that we need not want to repeat history again.
By the end of this book, we can’t help but question ourselves in today’s world, because that is where we live…
Are we indeed heading towards a civil war of differences politically that could lead to real bloodshed again?
June 2, 2024
Here is the short version of the lead up to the Civil War. Driven by greed and bigotry, the rich plantation owners of the South were creeping towards separation from the United States. From its beginning, the United States had accommodated, compromised, and twisted itself into knots to appease the Southern states, but that wasn’t enough for them. They demanded total capitulation. They were finally driven over the edge by the fear that the election of Abraham Lincoln would end the reign of their business plan that depended on a pool of unpaid labor. The fact that Lincoln had no such plan didn’t get through to them, so some entitled idiots in South Carolina declared themselves free of the union of states and decided to attack Fort Sumter. The southerners got their fort, and four years of war. That is what happens when you give sway to the very worst of human nature.
This book details the long (extensively researched) build up to the attack on Fort Sumter. It covers only 5 months, but they were extremely tense and eventful months. President James Buchanan dithered and basically did nothing while the southerners plotted. Lincoln faced threats of assassination and was thrown into a crisis even before his inauguration. Major Robert Anderson managed to secretly smuggle his troops to Fort Sumter (that was actually exciting as well as clever). There is a lot of political maneuvering.
The book relies on written records for everything. These people were committed diary keepers. There is a lot of detail about biographies, personalities, physical characteristics and ailments. That could have been tedious to read, but I didn’t mind it. The book did not feel long, and 25% of it contains the bibliography and notes. I loved Will Patton’s narration of the audio book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
This book details the long (extensively researched) build up to the attack on Fort Sumter. It covers only 5 months, but they were extremely tense and eventful months. President James Buchanan dithered and basically did nothing while the southerners plotted. Lincoln faced threats of assassination and was thrown into a crisis even before his inauguration. Major Robert Anderson managed to secretly smuggle his troops to Fort Sumter (that was actually exciting as well as clever). There is a lot of political maneuvering.
The book relies on written records for everything. These people were committed diary keepers. There is a lot of detail about biographies, personalities, physical characteristics and ailments. That could have been tedious to read, but I didn’t mind it. The book did not feel long, and 25% of it contains the bibliography and notes. I loved Will Patton’s narration of the audio book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
July 8, 2024
”I was well into my research on the saga of Fort Sumter and the advent of the American Civil War when the events of January 6, 2021, took place. As I watched the Capitol assault unfold on camera, I had the eerie feeling that present and past had merged. It is unsettling that in 1861 two of the greatest moments of national dread centered on the certification of the Electoral College vote and the presidential inauguration.”—— Erik Larson, Dark Magic (A Note to Readers)
Erik Larson is a master storyteller and this masterful examination into the run-up before the Civil War and the six months between the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, the inauguration in Washington, and the surrender of Fort Sumter. In the election of November 1860, the country was bitterly at odds with the Southern extremists moving closer to destroying the Union with one state after another electing to secede from the Union with Lincoln powerless to stop them. The Demon of Unrest focuses on Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the forts in Charleston Harbor as the passions of the North and the South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor, that of Fort Sumpter.
At the heart of this riveting narrative was Major Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumpter. Anderson was a former slave owner and sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union. Larson also focuses on a radical Edmund Ruffin stirring secessionist rhetoric,and Mary Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter and conflicted about both marriage and slavery, most importantly, she kept a diary. In the middle of it all was the overwhelmed Abraham Lincoln as he tries to avert a war that he fears is inevitable. As always, there is extensive research in this book as Larson utilizes diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers and plantation records. It is the harrowing story of the nation’s forces that led America to the brink. One cannot read this book without seeing the harrowing and shocking similarities of the polarity in our nation today to the era of the Civil War.
May 23, 2024
Seriously, the first sentence of the book read, "I was well into my research on the saga of Fort Sumter and the advent of the American Civil War when the events of January 6, 2021, took place. As I watched the Capitol assault unfold on camera, I had the eerie feeling that present and past had merged." HARD PASS! Disappointing assessment from one of my favorite authors. As a historian, I know that history is not fact, but rather written through the opinions and viewpoint of the historian, no matter how neutral they try to be. So I would be questioning everything he wrote in this book as though he was looking through the lens of comparing J6 with the Civil War. And yes, it unfolded as he was researching. But when this book was published, much more had been exposed and come to light. Why even mention it? Just write me a book about the Civil War and leave current day politics out of it.
p.s. I wondered why this book was just sitting on the "New Releases" shelf at the library and didn't have a hold list a mile long. Now I know why!
p.s. I wondered why this book was just sitting on the "New Releases" shelf at the library and didn't have a hold list a mile long. Now I know why!
May 1, 2024
I listened to this one and I didn’t like the narrator. Great well researched book.
June 13, 2024
This is one of those books that just pulls you right in. Larson has this amazing talent for making history feel like a grand adventure novel. Instead of just dumping a bunch of dates and events on you, he dives deep into the minds of the people who actually lived through these moments. It’s like you’re right there with them, experiencing everything firsthand.
One of the coolest things about this book is how Larson uses personal journals and diaries. It’s not a history lesson with dry dusty facts; it’s like you’re sitting down for a chat with someone who witnessed it all. His deeply intimate approach makes the story so much more engaging and real.
This book is packed with suspense, almost like a psychological thriller. And the crazy part is, it’s all true! Even though we know how things turn out in the end, Larson’s knack for detail and building tension keeps you on the edge of your seat. I found myself eagerly turning the pages, wanting to know what happened next.
Larson has this great habit of focusing on singular pivotal moments in history. His other books cover events like the sinking of the Lusitania, the Blitz of London, and the Chicago World's Fair. In this one, he zeroes in on the period leading up to the Civil War, especially the drama around Fort Sumter. I remember learning about Fort Sumter in school, but Larson brings it to life in a way that feels fresh and urgent.
What really stood out to me is how Larson captures the uncertainty and indecision of the moment. We often forget that the people back then didn’t know how things would turn out. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, he didn’t know a brutal Civil War was on the horizon. He was trying to navigate all the passions and conflicts threatening to tear the country apart. Larson does an incredible job of showing just how high the stakes were and how the way forward was a bewildering maze of frightful choices.
The book introduces us to a bunch of fascinating characters, each with their own take on what’s happening. For example, take Mary Chesnut. She’s a socialite and the wife of a secessionist general. We get to see the events through her eyes as she listens to the shelling of Fort Sumter from the streets of Charleston. Her diary entries are filled with anxiety, anticipation, and even a giddy joy at the violence. They give us a real sense of what it was like to be a civilian caught in the middle of this conflict. For those of us looking back, Mary is a quaint historical figure, but Larson turns her into someone who might live next door to you. We see her uncertainty and the terrible choices she faces. All the paths forward were so daunting.
Then there’s Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander in charge of Fort Sumter. He’s faced with this impossible decision: does he start a war by defending the fort, or does he swallow his pride and surrender with hope of avoiding bloodshed? Larson brings Anderson’s internal struggle to life, showing just how much blowback a level-headed person gets when passions boil over.
We also get to hear from William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State. He’s bitter about being passed over for the presidency, and his scheming and ambition add another layer of intrigue to the story. His personal diary entries reveal a man constantly plotting to increase his power within Lincoln’s administration.
And then there’s James Henry Hammond, a disgraced South Carolina politician desperate to redeem his reputation after a scandal involving an affair with underage girls who were his relatives. He sees the conflict as an opportunity to use the violence and hatred to regain his status and prove his worth. It brings a tragic edge to the political maneuvering of the time, highlighting how personal failings and ambitions were an ever-present part of these landmark historical events.
“The Demon of Unrest” is a fantastic read because it does such a deep dive into the real people who were both major participants and observers of these watershed moments. Larson’s ability to humanize history, combined with his talent for building suspense, makes this book a great read for most any literary taste. It’s a great reminder that history isn’t just a series of events but a tapestry of human experiences, dysfunctions, and emotions.
Erik Larson has once again proven his skill as both a historian and a storyteller. If only all history could be told in such a compelling way.
One of the coolest things about this book is how Larson uses personal journals and diaries. It’s not a history lesson with dry dusty facts; it’s like you’re sitting down for a chat with someone who witnessed it all. His deeply intimate approach makes the story so much more engaging and real.
This book is packed with suspense, almost like a psychological thriller. And the crazy part is, it’s all true! Even though we know how things turn out in the end, Larson’s knack for detail and building tension keeps you on the edge of your seat. I found myself eagerly turning the pages, wanting to know what happened next.
Larson has this great habit of focusing on singular pivotal moments in history. His other books cover events like the sinking of the Lusitania, the Blitz of London, and the Chicago World's Fair. In this one, he zeroes in on the period leading up to the Civil War, especially the drama around Fort Sumter. I remember learning about Fort Sumter in school, but Larson brings it to life in a way that feels fresh and urgent.
What really stood out to me is how Larson captures the uncertainty and indecision of the moment. We often forget that the people back then didn’t know how things would turn out. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, he didn’t know a brutal Civil War was on the horizon. He was trying to navigate all the passions and conflicts threatening to tear the country apart. Larson does an incredible job of showing just how high the stakes were and how the way forward was a bewildering maze of frightful choices.
The book introduces us to a bunch of fascinating characters, each with their own take on what’s happening. For example, take Mary Chesnut. She’s a socialite and the wife of a secessionist general. We get to see the events through her eyes as she listens to the shelling of Fort Sumter from the streets of Charleston. Her diary entries are filled with anxiety, anticipation, and even a giddy joy at the violence. They give us a real sense of what it was like to be a civilian caught in the middle of this conflict. For those of us looking back, Mary is a quaint historical figure, but Larson turns her into someone who might live next door to you. We see her uncertainty and the terrible choices she faces. All the paths forward were so daunting.
Then there’s Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander in charge of Fort Sumter. He’s faced with this impossible decision: does he start a war by defending the fort, or does he swallow his pride and surrender with hope of avoiding bloodshed? Larson brings Anderson’s internal struggle to life, showing just how much blowback a level-headed person gets when passions boil over.
We also get to hear from William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State. He’s bitter about being passed over for the presidency, and his scheming and ambition add another layer of intrigue to the story. His personal diary entries reveal a man constantly plotting to increase his power within Lincoln’s administration.
And then there’s James Henry Hammond, a disgraced South Carolina politician desperate to redeem his reputation after a scandal involving an affair with underage girls who were his relatives. He sees the conflict as an opportunity to use the violence and hatred to regain his status and prove his worth. It brings a tragic edge to the political maneuvering of the time, highlighting how personal failings and ambitions were an ever-present part of these landmark historical events.
“The Demon of Unrest” is a fantastic read because it does such a deep dive into the real people who were both major participants and observers of these watershed moments. Larson’s ability to humanize history, combined with his talent for building suspense, makes this book a great read for most any literary taste. It’s a great reminder that history isn’t just a series of events but a tapestry of human experiences, dysfunctions, and emotions.
Erik Larson has once again proven his skill as both a historian and a storyteller. If only all history could be told in such a compelling way.
July 9, 2024
As always Erik Larson has written a comprehensive and extremely well researched story of the tensions and unrest that led us into the Civil War.
Concentrating on the commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, a man torn between his belief in slavery but loyal to the United States and his new commander in chief, Abraham Lincoln, the details and missteps that led us into conflict that wrecked havoc upon our nation.
If we ever wonder how feelings can become inflamed and carried to the breaking point, one really needs to look around and see the havoc that is being wrought today. Even as Lincoln desperately tries to hold the union together the forces of people, the press, and language attributed to him and was never uttered, set our nation ablaze.
Seven hundred, fifty thousand men perished in this war, and its aftermath is still felt to this very day. A tragedy that might have been averted is the question. It always lingers in the minds of those left behind as well as the people of today.
Thank you to Erik Larson, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this book published in April.
Concentrating on the commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, a man torn between his belief in slavery but loyal to the United States and his new commander in chief, Abraham Lincoln, the details and missteps that led us into conflict that wrecked havoc upon our nation.
If we ever wonder how feelings can become inflamed and carried to the breaking point, one really needs to look around and see the havoc that is being wrought today. Even as Lincoln desperately tries to hold the union together the forces of people, the press, and language attributed to him and was never uttered, set our nation ablaze.
Seven hundred, fifty thousand men perished in this war, and its aftermath is still felt to this very day. A tragedy that might have been averted is the question. It always lingers in the minds of those left behind as well as the people of today.
Thank you to Erik Larson, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this book published in April.
May 6, 2024
Although he had begun his research during the pandemic, it was the similarities with January 6 that spurred Erik Larson to complete his investigation into the Civil War and most particularly the role that the attack on Fort Sumter played. Once again, he examines a large piece of history by examining the lives of the players behind it, and here the proponents of the Southern secession are given motivations and personalities of their own. Utilizing diaries and correspondence, he casts his historian's eye on those events, delineating ironies and making history come to life.
Read
July 9, 2024I'm a big fan of Erik Larson's non-fiction. His research is impeccable and his books are usually gripping: a full court press of history, personality, conflict, and outcome that propels the reader through the book like a locomotive. I didn't feel that way about this book. While it's an amazingly granular look at what events and personalities led to the surrendering of Fort Sumter (beginning with Lincoln's election in 1860 and ending with Sumter's fall the following April (with a final jump in time to a postwar reclaiming of Sumter by the victorious union) its very granularity is what, for this reader, bogged the book down. I learned a great deal about specific individuals who were either observers or participants in the event in Charleston, South Carolina, and I also learned a great deal about governmental individuals who--prior to my reading of the book--I'd known by name only. And there are certainly characters of admirably nobility (most particularly Major Robert Anderson), despicable racism (James Henry Hammond) and scandalous treachery (Edmund Ruffin), the pace of the book begins to drag due to the sheer number of people and tangential events that the reader is exposed to. So, for this reader, The Demon of Unrest was a bit of a slog and for the first time in any book by Erik Larson, I looked several times to see how many pages were left to read. I hate to say this as I have loved all of his books until now. This one just didn't do it for me although that is not to say that it won't be an excellent read for students of the Civil War who want an in-depth look at the particular event that lit the conflagration that ultimately killed 750,000 people and lay waste to vast areas of the south.
July 4, 2024
Happy Independence Day!
You might think you know it all about the Civil War, but Erik Larson returns to tell us all about the months leading up to and including Fort Sumter. You might also think this isn’t the more interesting looks at that time, but true to his style, the author moves it along quickly. The chapters are short and full of quotes, either from letters or news. He seems to know all the principal actors intimately, and Lincoln only takes a small role. It was fascinating to hear from Seward, Major Anderson, and especially Buchanan.
There was a center on Edmund Ruffin, the staunch secessionist who fired the first shot at Sumter. Larson also clues us into the private lives of many Confederates and their sympathizers, including Jefferson Davis, Mary Chestnut, and James Hammond, the Senator who coined the phrase "Cotton is king.” I had to pause here and there, reading their thoughts and circumstances as though they were regular people, since in the back of my mind they were pro-slavery and uttered horribly racist ideology. But, of course, they’re products of their time and society. Understanding how the South thought was instructive and interesting. And, to be sure, you see some of the policy that just didn’t work out (England didn’t rush to support the Confederacy, and withholding cotton didn’t do much to the economy). Hammond in particular comes off quite poorly, and Ruffin meets a gruesome end. See Gone with the Wind: just because you read about the South doesn’t make you a Confederate sympathizer, IMHO.
Then, of course, there’s Fort Sumter. That could’ve been a book right there. Larson covers everything: Anderson’s background, his daring maneuver to occupy the fort during Christmas 1860, the South Carolina build-up of guns in Charleston harbor, and just about every shot fired. We hear from officers in the fort, including Abner B. Doubleday (yes, THAT Doubleday, to whom the founding of baseball is wrongly attributed). It gets tense, emotional, desperate. I didn’t know much about this battle, but I got everything I wanted and more.
Larson yet again proves himself to be one of the best historians in the game. Go get it!
You might think you know it all about the Civil War, but Erik Larson returns to tell us all about the months leading up to and including Fort Sumter. You might also think this isn’t the more interesting looks at that time, but true to his style, the author moves it along quickly. The chapters are short and full of quotes, either from letters or news. He seems to know all the principal actors intimately, and Lincoln only takes a small role. It was fascinating to hear from Seward, Major Anderson, and especially Buchanan.
There was a center on Edmund Ruffin, the staunch secessionist who fired the first shot at Sumter. Larson also clues us into the private lives of many Confederates and their sympathizers, including Jefferson Davis, Mary Chestnut, and James Hammond, the Senator who coined the phrase "Cotton is king.” I had to pause here and there, reading their thoughts and circumstances as though they were regular people, since in the back of my mind they were pro-slavery and uttered horribly racist ideology. But, of course, they’re products of their time and society. Understanding how the South thought was instructive and interesting. And, to be sure, you see some of the policy that just didn’t work out (England didn’t rush to support the Confederacy, and withholding cotton didn’t do much to the economy). Hammond in particular comes off quite poorly, and Ruffin meets a gruesome end. See Gone with the Wind: just because you read about the South doesn’t make you a Confederate sympathizer, IMHO.
Then, of course, there’s Fort Sumter. That could’ve been a book right there. Larson covers everything: Anderson’s background, his daring maneuver to occupy the fort during Christmas 1860, the South Carolina build-up of guns in Charleston harbor, and just about every shot fired. We hear from officers in the fort, including Abner B. Doubleday (yes, THAT Doubleday, to whom the founding of baseball is wrongly attributed). It gets tense, emotional, desperate. I didn’t know much about this battle, but I got everything I wanted and more.
Larson yet again proves himself to be one of the best historians in the game. Go get it!
June 20, 2024
Erik Larson is an automatic read for me. He has become one of my favorite non-fiction authors, making past events come alive.
The Demon of Unrest covers the months between Lincoln's victory at the polls in 1860 and the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter in Charleston in 1861. While Erik does a good job of highlighting players in this conflict you might have never heard of, I think he delves a little too deep in the minutiae of certain events. Some of the chapters felt like filler, with him going off on side adventures that didn't really add anything to the narrative.
I would still recommend this, though. You will learn stuff that will give you a greater appreciation of how precarious this nation was going into the 1860's.
The Demon of Unrest covers the months between Lincoln's victory at the polls in 1860 and the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter in Charleston in 1861. While Erik does a good job of highlighting players in this conflict you might have never heard of, I think he delves a little too deep in the minutiae of certain events. Some of the chapters felt like filler, with him going off on side adventures that didn't really add anything to the narrative.
I would still recommend this, though. You will learn stuff that will give you a greater appreciation of how precarious this nation was going into the 1860's.
June 6, 2024
You would think that there's very little to still learn about The Civil War but we can always learn more. The Demon of Unrest is about the lead up to The Civil War. As a Kentuckian I was amused by all the Kentucky centric storylines....unfortunately they tended to be pro slavery even if Kentucky never joined the Confederate States.
I loved that the author made sure to remind everyone what The Civil War was actually about. It's becoming more more normal for the MAGA gang to say that the War was about "states rights" and "freedom for the states to do what was best for them" but this author used the words of the men who were at the heart of the pre War movement to explain why they wanted to secede from the union....SLAVERY and the fact that they believed that Black people weren't people. Now to be clear even the pro union side was racist they just also thought racism was wrong.
The author tells us that he decided to write this book in the aftermath of January 6th. That day really affected some people...I thought it was hilarious in a dark and depressing way because white people truly can do whatever they want in this country. This author saw that terrible day through a historical lens.
Are we at the precise of another Civil War?
No. The fascist have already won. What's to fight about. Trump may become President again but even if he loses I doubt we have any Democrats who would put up a fight.
The Demon of Unrest is an enthralling and entertaining look at a crucial part of American history. This is the second book by Erik Larson that I've read. The first being The Devil in the White Hot City, I enjoyed that book and I'll probably read his other books at some point. He's a great writer and I think he makes history assessable to everyone.
I highly recommend this book!
I loved that the author made sure to remind everyone what The Civil War was actually about. It's becoming more more normal for the MAGA gang to say that the War was about "states rights" and "freedom for the states to do what was best for them" but this author used the words of the men who were at the heart of the pre War movement to explain why they wanted to secede from the union....SLAVERY and the fact that they believed that Black people weren't people. Now to be clear even the pro union side was racist they just also thought racism was wrong.
The author tells us that he decided to write this book in the aftermath of January 6th. That day really affected some people...I thought it was hilarious in a dark and depressing way because white people truly can do whatever they want in this country. This author saw that terrible day through a historical lens.
Are we at the precise of another Civil War?
No. The fascist have already won. What's to fight about. Trump may become President again but even if he loses I doubt we have any Democrats who would put up a fight.
The Demon of Unrest is an enthralling and entertaining look at a crucial part of American history. This is the second book by Erik Larson that I've read. The first being The Devil in the White Hot City, I enjoyed that book and I'll probably read his other books at some point. He's a great writer and I think he makes history assessable to everyone.
I highly recommend this book!
May 7, 2024
“My cup of bitterness is full and overflowing.”
Ditto, bro I tried.
Incredibly researched; felt like a lecture that I missed the first half of & spent the rest of class scribbling notes rather than retaining info.
Ditto, bro I tried.
Incredibly researched; felt like a lecture that I missed the first half of & spent the rest of class scribbling notes rather than retaining info.
June 1, 2024
“I fear, this demon of unrest which has been the utmost sole disturber of the land for years past.” —Dennis Hart Mahan, West Point professor, 1860
Man, this book was amazing, fascinating, sad, and scary. Why scary? Because the events and attitudes occurring in the years and months leading up to the Civil War are happening again now. America is a divided nation that has never completely healed from the war that turned brother against brother, state against state. I learned more from this book about the conflict and its key players than I ever learned in school, and Larson brought this time period to light so vividly that it hit me pretty hard.
Man, this book was amazing, fascinating, sad, and scary. Why scary? Because the events and attitudes occurring in the years and months leading up to the Civil War are happening again now. America is a divided nation that has never completely healed from the war that turned brother against brother, state against state. I learned more from this book about the conflict and its key players than I ever learned in school, and Larson brought this time period to light so vividly that it hit me pretty hard.
May 9, 2024
There are two types of people who are going to eagerly seek out this book - fans of anything that Erik Larson writes, and those who want to learn more about events leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter that set off the Civil War.
Oh, who am I kidding, the vast majority of people who read this are going to do so because it's by Erik Larson. In skimming through book covers of upcoming releases months ago, I briefly saw this one and, from the cover art and enigmatic title, it never even registered with me that this was about Fort Sumter at all. But I could sure tell from the dark, moody, Larson-esque looks of it that it was destined to be another well-written, page-turning, surefire Larson bestseller, whatever it happened to be about.
As for me, I've only read one Larson book - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, many years ago when it first came out. I remember it being quite good. But I've read a lot of books about Fort Sumter and Lincoln and the Civil War. So that might put me in the distinct minority of people who ran to get this newest book not because of the author, but because of the subject matter. Or, perhaps, because of the combination of author and subject matter.
And of course I wanted this to be good, or I wouldn't have read it. But a small part of me may have secretly wanted to act like some know-it-all, pointing out the book's flaws so I could show off how little ol' me knows better than a best-selling author. Thankfully, for many reasons, that did not come to pass. Are there more thoughtful, detailed, analytical books out there about the lead up to the attack on Fort Sumter? Sure. Are there more dramatic, suspenseful, gripping Erik Larson books out there? I suppose, based on my own limited experience. Nonetheless, I give this the highest rating because it does so well what it sets out to do, and tells the story of Fort Sumter in perhaps the most engaging way possible.
Larson’s telling of the story is distinctly character-driven, as events unfold through the eyes of major players like Presidents Buchanan, Lincoln and Davis; Secretary of State Seward and Sumter commander Robert Anderson, as well as observers like diarist and socialite Mary Chesnut, reporter William Howard Russell and Zelig-like Virginian Edmund Ruffin, who eventually becomes something of a human through line to the whole story, as he seemingly pops up everywhere, from various prewar states considering secession, to the attack on Sumter, to, later, Bull Run.
The focus on personalities over dry discussions of policies and politics keeps the book engaging and moving along. The very structure of the book does as well. The seven “parts” of the book are broken into many short chapters - one of them barely three paragraphs long - which keeps it pacey and gives the book a “can’t put it down” page-turning quality. It becomes easy to say, oh, I’ll just read one more chapter before bed, and then find yourself reading many more. Larson is a pro, after all, and clearly knows what he’s doing here.
As for historical accuracy, there’s nothing I found myself quibbling with, aside from the possibly questionable veracity of some quotes, which is something that anyone writing about this period has to contend with. Lest anyone think he’s inventing any dialogue, Larson explains at the outset that anything he puts in quotes is something that someone actually said or wrote. Yet, many of these quotes are from reminiscences published decades after the conversations they recount took place, so it might have been clunky but helpful to have the sources of the quotes incorporated into the narrative rather than tucked away in the end notes, so the reader could better judge how literally to take those quotes.
Otherwise, my only other critique is that sometimes the story moves so swiftly, that dramatic events whiz by - or maybe they weren’t actually as dramatic as Larson made them out to be in the first place, as some events are heavily foreshadowed, but when they finally arrive, they quickly occur without incident. This happens, for instance, with the Baltimore Plot, the alleged Lincoln assassination conspiracies as he traveled to his inauguration. The threat looms ever larger as the narrative progresses, only to quickly be dispensed with once Lincoln arrives in, and departs from, Baltimore. “No weapons were confiscated, no arrests made” amid “doubt(s) that a specific plot existed,” Larson summarizes before dropping it and moving on. It also happens with the potential disruption of the electoral vote count in Congress, which brings to mind violent images of January 6, 2021. When the moment arrives, though, Larson states that “concern about the count was real,” but ultimately, “the count went smoothly,” and that’s the end of that.
And evoking January 6 was no accident - Larson mentions it in the very first sentence of the book. It’s a bit of a strained comparison to try to relate events of that time to now, but I suppose it’s necessary and forgivable for a work of popular history to make those comparisons in order to help make history seem more relevant to a casual reader who might wonder why they should care about events from long ago.
The challenge of any book that aims to tell only part of the story of this era, is when to end it. If you tell a story about a certain period of Lincoln’s life, do you have to eventually relate how that life ended? If you tell about the beginning of the Civil War, do you also have to summarize how it concluded? Larson does both of these things in the epilogue, after the main narrative ends with the surrender of Fort Sumter. But then he goes on to end the book in a rather unique way, with a scene that I won’t spoil, but it’s certainly one that most readers probably wouldn’t have seen coming.
I wouldn’t say I necessarily learned anything new from this book, but then that would be missing the point. Like most of Larson’s historical narratives, it’s more about enjoying the storytelling than merely acquiring knowledge. For those who already know how it all turned out, this may not be their favorite Larson book in that it lacks a certain drama and tension and a sense that you have no idea what twists and turns are coming next. I liked it regardless. As for anyone who’s not already familiar with the events he relates, this may be the best and most readable account of the months leading up to the Civil War. I’ve read many books about Fort Sumter, but if someone were to ask me to recommend just one book to read about the subject, I’d very likely suggest they read this one.
Considering this story has been told many times by many authors over the years, the fact that Larson was able to put a new and engaging spin on it - one that may be as interesting to the expert reader as it is to the novice - is a noteworthy achievement, resulting in a book that I’d happily recommend.
Oh, who am I kidding, the vast majority of people who read this are going to do so because it's by Erik Larson. In skimming through book covers of upcoming releases months ago, I briefly saw this one and, from the cover art and enigmatic title, it never even registered with me that this was about Fort Sumter at all. But I could sure tell from the dark, moody, Larson-esque looks of it that it was destined to be another well-written, page-turning, surefire Larson bestseller, whatever it happened to be about.
As for me, I've only read one Larson book - The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, many years ago when it first came out. I remember it being quite good. But I've read a lot of books about Fort Sumter and Lincoln and the Civil War. So that might put me in the distinct minority of people who ran to get this newest book not because of the author, but because of the subject matter. Or, perhaps, because of the combination of author and subject matter.
And of course I wanted this to be good, or I wouldn't have read it. But a small part of me may have secretly wanted to act like some know-it-all, pointing out the book's flaws so I could show off how little ol' me knows better than a best-selling author. Thankfully, for many reasons, that did not come to pass. Are there more thoughtful, detailed, analytical books out there about the lead up to the attack on Fort Sumter? Sure. Are there more dramatic, suspenseful, gripping Erik Larson books out there? I suppose, based on my own limited experience. Nonetheless, I give this the highest rating because it does so well what it sets out to do, and tells the story of Fort Sumter in perhaps the most engaging way possible.
Larson’s telling of the story is distinctly character-driven, as events unfold through the eyes of major players like Presidents Buchanan, Lincoln and Davis; Secretary of State Seward and Sumter commander Robert Anderson, as well as observers like diarist and socialite Mary Chesnut, reporter William Howard Russell and Zelig-like Virginian Edmund Ruffin, who eventually becomes something of a human through line to the whole story, as he seemingly pops up everywhere, from various prewar states considering secession, to the attack on Sumter, to, later, Bull Run.
The focus on personalities over dry discussions of policies and politics keeps the book engaging and moving along. The very structure of the book does as well. The seven “parts” of the book are broken into many short chapters - one of them barely three paragraphs long - which keeps it pacey and gives the book a “can’t put it down” page-turning quality. It becomes easy to say, oh, I’ll just read one more chapter before bed, and then find yourself reading many more. Larson is a pro, after all, and clearly knows what he’s doing here.
As for historical accuracy, there’s nothing I found myself quibbling with, aside from the possibly questionable veracity of some quotes, which is something that anyone writing about this period has to contend with. Lest anyone think he’s inventing any dialogue, Larson explains at the outset that anything he puts in quotes is something that someone actually said or wrote. Yet, many of these quotes are from reminiscences published decades after the conversations they recount took place, so it might have been clunky but helpful to have the sources of the quotes incorporated into the narrative rather than tucked away in the end notes, so the reader could better judge how literally to take those quotes.
Otherwise, my only other critique is that sometimes the story moves so swiftly, that dramatic events whiz by - or maybe they weren’t actually as dramatic as Larson made them out to be in the first place, as some events are heavily foreshadowed, but when they finally arrive, they quickly occur without incident. This happens, for instance, with the Baltimore Plot, the alleged Lincoln assassination conspiracies as he traveled to his inauguration. The threat looms ever larger as the narrative progresses, only to quickly be dispensed with once Lincoln arrives in, and departs from, Baltimore. “No weapons were confiscated, no arrests made” amid “doubt(s) that a specific plot existed,” Larson summarizes before dropping it and moving on. It also happens with the potential disruption of the electoral vote count in Congress, which brings to mind violent images of January 6, 2021. When the moment arrives, though, Larson states that “concern about the count was real,” but ultimately, “the count went smoothly,” and that’s the end of that.
And evoking January 6 was no accident - Larson mentions it in the very first sentence of the book. It’s a bit of a strained comparison to try to relate events of that time to now, but I suppose it’s necessary and forgivable for a work of popular history to make those comparisons in order to help make history seem more relevant to a casual reader who might wonder why they should care about events from long ago.
The challenge of any book that aims to tell only part of the story of this era, is when to end it. If you tell a story about a certain period of Lincoln’s life, do you have to eventually relate how that life ended? If you tell about the beginning of the Civil War, do you also have to summarize how it concluded? Larson does both of these things in the epilogue, after the main narrative ends with the surrender of Fort Sumter. But then he goes on to end the book in a rather unique way, with a scene that I won’t spoil, but it’s certainly one that most readers probably wouldn’t have seen coming.
I wouldn’t say I necessarily learned anything new from this book, but then that would be missing the point. Like most of Larson’s historical narratives, it’s more about enjoying the storytelling than merely acquiring knowledge. For those who already know how it all turned out, this may not be their favorite Larson book in that it lacks a certain drama and tension and a sense that you have no idea what twists and turns are coming next. I liked it regardless. As for anyone who’s not already familiar with the events he relates, this may be the best and most readable account of the months leading up to the Civil War. I’ve read many books about Fort Sumter, but if someone were to ask me to recommend just one book to read about the subject, I’d very likely suggest they read this one.
Considering this story has been told many times by many authors over the years, the fact that Larson was able to put a new and engaging spin on it - one that may be as interesting to the expert reader as it is to the novice - is a noteworthy achievement, resulting in a book that I’d happily recommend.
January 18, 2024
Step by heartbreaking, arrogant, blinded step, Larson follows the path to civil war - from Lincoln's election to the firing on Fort Sumter. (Interesting fact - In Lincoln's letters, he misspelled Sumter. He always put a "p" in it.) The months were filled with Southern bravado, mixed messages, or no communication at all with Major Anderson at Sumter. President James Buchanan just wanted to return home with the Union still intact so he did nothing. William Seward really, really thought he was in control and could be the power behind the President. In addition to Anderson, Buchanan, Lincoln, and Seward, Larson follows Edmund Ruffin, a bloodthirsty Virginian who stirred secession wherever he went, Mary Chestnut , Southern wife and diarist, and many others lesser known participants who are now given their due. One of my favorites was the correspondent from the London Times. He actually traveled south to get a better idea of whether there were any pro-Union citizens. This was unlike some in Lincoln's Cabinet who never crossed the Mason-Dixon Line yet maintained that there were enough Unionist who would pull the southern states back in. Larson's bibliography is huge; he used diaries, slave ledgers, letters, secret messages. The pages go on and on. This reminded me of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August which laid out the terrible, wrong steps that lead to World War I. And like that bloody conflict, combatants were sure the conflict would be short. (Oh, and it was about slavery.)
May 5, 2024
Excellently researched and narrated, however my mind ✨wandered✨ a lot. Mary Chestnut would have been my mortal enemy if we had lived in the same time period. Chewing tobacco is disgusting today, however in 1861 it was downright revolting. Both Lincoln and Anderson needed a hug. 3.5
May 14, 2024
Marvelous narrative non-fiction, well researched (as usual). I found most of this information leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter new to me and greatly intriguing.
June 3, 2024
Tremendously told. Larson is one of the best.
May 15, 2024
I have always loved Erik Larson’s books. However this was the first one that disappointed me. Too much detail. It droned on and on exploring every minuscule detail of the attack on Fort Sumter. It was ponderous trying to slog through it so I stopped. I fast forwarded to the Epilogue and that is why I gave it 2 stars. 🙁
May 15, 2024
I have visited Ft. Sumter. The ferry ride from Charleston to the island fort is about 30 min. long. While reading this book, I still think about that ride. It blows my mind a cannonball, shot from Charleston, can fly apx. 4 miles out and hit the fort with great accuracy. Anyways, I have enjoyed reading other books by Larson and this one on the beginning of the Civil War is interesting. I appreciate the author being careful to expose the continuing Lie that South Carolina’s succession (later Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc.) was anything other than about keeping slavery (i.e. the Lies of “the Lost Cause”, States Rights, Federal over-reach, etc.). *The very first sentence of S. Carolina’s declaration of causes clearly states the reason for succession is due to “hostility to the institution of slavery” if you read it. & he makes pains to highlight Lincoln never tried to abolish slavery in the beginning, wanting to compromise and keep the Peace (with much criticism by Frederick Douglass) only after the War started, by “the South”, did he change tactics. The firebrands and warmongers rattling their sabers months before Lincoln was even sworn in as President.
**Noted other authors, e.g. Shelby Foote, explain the difference between the motivations of the foot soldier actually fighting the wars “because you are here”, vs. those in leadership who start & fund the wars. Most confederate infantry did not own slaves. However, Rober E Lee did, Jefferson Davis did, even the pious Stonewall Jackson owned slaves as did most of the Confederate brass.
However, what is even more interesting to me, is that in his prologue, Larson attempts to draw parallels with the siege and shelling upon Ft. Sumter by the traitor Confederacy and everything leading up to it, compared with our current turmoil with the far right, & the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol assault. Indeed the same “tragic errors, enflamed egos and craven ambitions” resulted in both conflicts. This is why we study History. This is why History is important. This is why we need authors like Larson to write History books…To hopefully educate & not repeat the same mistakes.
As even Shakespeare stole (Sonnet 59) from the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9), “there is Nothing New under the Sun”, …the fall of Rome, the rise of Hitler, different actors, different settings, same old thing. we are still struggling with the same ignorance, racism, regionalism and outright lies that were prevalent 150+ years ago.
Ultimately this is a solid addition to the American Civil War library, highlighting a niche episode with meditations on a larger debate.
**Noted other authors, e.g. Shelby Foote, explain the difference between the motivations of the foot soldier actually fighting the wars “because you are here”, vs. those in leadership who start & fund the wars. Most confederate infantry did not own slaves. However, Rober E Lee did, Jefferson Davis did, even the pious Stonewall Jackson owned slaves as did most of the Confederate brass.
However, what is even more interesting to me, is that in his prologue, Larson attempts to draw parallels with the siege and shelling upon Ft. Sumter by the traitor Confederacy and everything leading up to it, compared with our current turmoil with the far right, & the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol assault. Indeed the same “tragic errors, enflamed egos and craven ambitions” resulted in both conflicts. This is why we study History. This is why History is important. This is why we need authors like Larson to write History books…To hopefully educate & not repeat the same mistakes.
As even Shakespeare stole (Sonnet 59) from the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9), “there is Nothing New under the Sun”, …the fall of Rome, the rise of Hitler, different actors, different settings, same old thing. we are still struggling with the same ignorance, racism, regionalism and outright lies that were prevalent 150+ years ago.
Ultimately this is a solid addition to the American Civil War library, highlighting a niche episode with meditations on a larger debate.
May 27, 2024
Any reader with a passion for history can rely on Erik Larson to deliver a stellar tome, no matter the subject matter. In this book, Larson sheds light on those key months between the election of the controversial (at the time) Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War. What began as a crisis that agitated both sides of the conflict, the fabric of the nation was soon torn apart, leaving Lincoln to begin his life as president juggling running the country and watching it dissolve before his eyes. While Larson makes some bold sentiments—going so far in the introduction as drawing parallels between this period and the January 6, 2021 insurrection—readers can stand behind much of what the author has to say and see many curious narratives that come together in the culmination of the book. A stellar tome with a great deal of research to support it, which is always a guarantee with Erik Larson at the helm. I cannot say enough about this book or its author!
The sentiments about slavery ahead of the 1860 national election proved to show just how much of a powder keg the United States tended to be. Erik Larson depicts this with a key set of vignettes, as he discusses the various states and some of their political giants. The talk of slavery and the righteousness of indentured servitude became headline news, creating quite the clash of minds and sometimes fists, all in order to show just how divisive the ideas could be at the times. The presidential election proves just as problematic, with ideas on all sides as well. Sitting President James Buchanan noticed the unrest and wanted only to get to the end of his term so that he might hand over the reins of power to someone else, leaving them to handle the mess.
The country was at odds with itself and knew that there would be tension, depending on who might win the upcoming presidential election. The South was bitterly holding onto the idea of slavery as needed and an essential part of the country’s economic advancement. Many were sure that the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln wanted only to abolish slavery and their sentiments could not be missed in many written publications. There was no way for Lincoln to assert that he was not pushing for abolition, but rather a halt to its further expansion. This idea was lost on many, going so far as to refuse to allow the Republican’s name on the presidential ballot, which would make it harder to win the Electoral College and eventually capture the needed votes for a path to the White House. When the dust settled on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln ended up being the surprise victor in a presidential race that proved tighter than many would have liked.
Larson clearly builds the tension during the time between the election and the inauguration of the new president. Tensions boiled over, first in South Carolina, and soon elsewhere. The voice of the Carolina delegates to secede from the Union forced the Buchanan Administration—fully in lame-duck status—to begin trying to quell the rebellion and ensure that the clashes remained contained. However, news from Fort Sumter proved to be too much and the feelings of compassion, with secret support within the Cabinet, left Buchanan to put out fires within his own group and trying to keep things calm, though he was toothless.
There was a push to kill Lincoln before he could be sworn-in as president, with a plot set to take him out while he was in Baltimore. Larson addresses this with a keen narrative that depicts the news arriving to Lincoln and how he utilised a quick switch and bait tactic to sneak into Washington and foil the plot. This proved exciting and was not the first time I heard about it, but the detail made it come to life for me, the curious reader.
Upon his swearing-in and inaugural address, Lincoln set about to begin running the country and quelling the increasing fires that quickly got out of hand. Lincoln was no military expert, but he had strong feeling that he would not push aside. His passion to keep the country together and hold firm that slavery would not subsume the nation left Lincoln ready to fight for his beliefs and hopes. Larson explores the tension within Washington and the larger country, as the battle soon became inevitable. Lincoln used his prowess and determination to pave the way to put out any enemy views, even as the South began setting up its own governing body and strong army. The clash was on and both sides felt they had the needed muscle to push their view upon the larger country. The Civil War was brewing and it only took one side to formally declare it on the other.
Erik Larson pulls on many forms of research to ensure he gets a full and complete narrative. His exploration of speeches, journal entries, newspaper article, and other forms of communication at the times ensures that the reader has as full a picture as possible to depict the drama that developed in the early stages of the unrest. The reader can (and should) feel as though they are in the middle of it all, many of whom will likely be in awe that such things could have been put to paper or uttered aloud. Larson pulls no punches with his tome and focusses on some key players who are sure to offer up great sentiments not seen before in books of this nature. Exploring the thoughts of Major Robert Anderson (Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union), Edmund Ruffin (a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity), and even Mary Boykin Chesnut (wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both) offers up a personal view of events, on which the interested reader can feast. It also provides a narrative to follow throughout the book’s progress.
Erik Larson proves his mettle once more with this piece, which far surpasses what I came to expect from this book. Larson’s detailed depiction in this tome is supported with strong examples within well-developed chapters throughout. While dealing with only a short period of time, Larson is able to explore the strong values and passions of those who lived in the time (some of whom rose guns and muskets to defend their side of things). Larson is always able to shed light on issues in history and pull the reader into the middle of things, which he has done once more. This has whetted my appetite for further exploration of events, though I have read a number of accounts, biographical and strictly historical, of the US Civil War. Well done, Mr. Larson for lighting something inside of me to further my knowledge.
Kudos Mr. Larson, for yet another wonderful exploration of a piece of history I thought I knew.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
The sentiments about slavery ahead of the 1860 national election proved to show just how much of a powder keg the United States tended to be. Erik Larson depicts this with a key set of vignettes, as he discusses the various states and some of their political giants. The talk of slavery and the righteousness of indentured servitude became headline news, creating quite the clash of minds and sometimes fists, all in order to show just how divisive the ideas could be at the times. The presidential election proves just as problematic, with ideas on all sides as well. Sitting President James Buchanan noticed the unrest and wanted only to get to the end of his term so that he might hand over the reins of power to someone else, leaving them to handle the mess.
The country was at odds with itself and knew that there would be tension, depending on who might win the upcoming presidential election. The South was bitterly holding onto the idea of slavery as needed and an essential part of the country’s economic advancement. Many were sure that the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln wanted only to abolish slavery and their sentiments could not be missed in many written publications. There was no way for Lincoln to assert that he was not pushing for abolition, but rather a halt to its further expansion. This idea was lost on many, going so far as to refuse to allow the Republican’s name on the presidential ballot, which would make it harder to win the Electoral College and eventually capture the needed votes for a path to the White House. When the dust settled on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln ended up being the surprise victor in a presidential race that proved tighter than many would have liked.
Larson clearly builds the tension during the time between the election and the inauguration of the new president. Tensions boiled over, first in South Carolina, and soon elsewhere. The voice of the Carolina delegates to secede from the Union forced the Buchanan Administration—fully in lame-duck status—to begin trying to quell the rebellion and ensure that the clashes remained contained. However, news from Fort Sumter proved to be too much and the feelings of compassion, with secret support within the Cabinet, left Buchanan to put out fires within his own group and trying to keep things calm, though he was toothless.
There was a push to kill Lincoln before he could be sworn-in as president, with a plot set to take him out while he was in Baltimore. Larson addresses this with a keen narrative that depicts the news arriving to Lincoln and how he utilised a quick switch and bait tactic to sneak into Washington and foil the plot. This proved exciting and was not the first time I heard about it, but the detail made it come to life for me, the curious reader.
Upon his swearing-in and inaugural address, Lincoln set about to begin running the country and quelling the increasing fires that quickly got out of hand. Lincoln was no military expert, but he had strong feeling that he would not push aside. His passion to keep the country together and hold firm that slavery would not subsume the nation left Lincoln ready to fight for his beliefs and hopes. Larson explores the tension within Washington and the larger country, as the battle soon became inevitable. Lincoln used his prowess and determination to pave the way to put out any enemy views, even as the South began setting up its own governing body and strong army. The clash was on and both sides felt they had the needed muscle to push their view upon the larger country. The Civil War was brewing and it only took one side to formally declare it on the other.
Erik Larson pulls on many forms of research to ensure he gets a full and complete narrative. His exploration of speeches, journal entries, newspaper article, and other forms of communication at the times ensures that the reader has as full a picture as possible to depict the drama that developed in the early stages of the unrest. The reader can (and should) feel as though they are in the middle of it all, many of whom will likely be in awe that such things could have been put to paper or uttered aloud. Larson pulls no punches with his tome and focusses on some key players who are sure to offer up great sentiments not seen before in books of this nature. Exploring the thoughts of Major Robert Anderson (Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union), Edmund Ruffin (a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity), and even Mary Boykin Chesnut (wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both) offers up a personal view of events, on which the interested reader can feast. It also provides a narrative to follow throughout the book’s progress.
Erik Larson proves his mettle once more with this piece, which far surpasses what I came to expect from this book. Larson’s detailed depiction in this tome is supported with strong examples within well-developed chapters throughout. While dealing with only a short period of time, Larson is able to explore the strong values and passions of those who lived in the time (some of whom rose guns and muskets to defend their side of things). Larson is always able to shed light on issues in history and pull the reader into the middle of things, which he has done once more. This has whetted my appetite for further exploration of events, though I have read a number of accounts, biographical and strictly historical, of the US Civil War. Well done, Mr. Larson for lighting something inside of me to further my knowledge.
Kudos Mr. Larson, for yet another wonderful exploration of a piece of history I thought I knew.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
May 22, 2024
First and foremost, I'm a fan of Erik Larson and all his books. I find it ironic he compares the Civil War to Jan. 6th 2021. Is that like comparing May 31, 2020, remember, the attack on the White House, the burning of the neighboring church, escorting the President to an under ground bunker, the same as the assassination of Lincoln. We could compare the 2024 election to 1860. Buchanan vs Biden, on who was the worst. Anyhow, about the book, it fails to mention anything about South Carolina's right of secession. Lincoln did not recognize the seven states that seceded by the time he came into office as a legitimate government. Again, The Confederate States of America was legally, an independent government By Lincoln not recognizing the confederate states as a legitimate government and declared it a state of rebellion or anarchy. Secession was a right every state had and was built into our constitution. Secession almost occurred in 1804 by the state in New England but backed out due to congressional concessions. Based on historical record, the Union was a federal Republic comprised of independent sovereign states. Of course, this was changed after the Civil War so unfortunately, talk of California seceding is just that....talk. So Lincoln takes over, institutes an illegal draft, illegal income tax, suspends Habeas corpus, troops sent to polling places to intimidate Dem voters, ballot stuffing, arrest and disarm private citizens for pro-southern activity such as wearing support badges, formed a new central bank. His violations were a blue print for the future. I recommend the book but I sometimes worry that we compare history to today's values. I always pose the question, who cared more about fighting in the Civil war,,,the dock worker from New York city or the Dock worker from Charleston. Did the north really give a crap about slavery or did they just hate the South as much as the South hated them. I disagree with Larson's comparison of 2020, but it could be a comparison of 2024!
April 26, 2024
Thank you NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this ARC. This is my honest review.
I was ecstatic to be chosen to read this ARC. I am not an avid NF history reader, but years ago a friend gave me a copy of Devil in the White City because she knew I loved true crime. That began my love affair with Mr. Larson’s books!
I read other reviews that said there is a lot of his research material included in this book, and that it sometimes got tedious. I did not find this to be the case at all. Yes, he includes the research and identifies the sources. But I would hope if you are reading history you would want sources stated and verified. I also felt that his research really fleshed out the people involved.
This is a fascinating book that explores all events leading up to the Civil War. It is so interesting to see through diaries and court accounts and senate reports the thoughts and actions of Anderson, Lincoln, Ruffin, and a myriad of other people. We see them as real people from childhood to adulthood. I love that through the author’s detailed approach, the reader is able to see every component that led to this war. I learned a lot of new information, and found the population of South Carolina at that time fascinating, and also frightening.
There is disturbing personal information about Anderson that had me seething. The description of slave life is detailed and heartbreaking. Larson does not gloss over this- he paints a very real yet heartbreaking visualization.
I feel that we need to know the history so that we can learn from it, and pave a brighter future.
I highly recommend this book!!!
I was ecstatic to be chosen to read this ARC. I am not an avid NF history reader, but years ago a friend gave me a copy of Devil in the White City because she knew I loved true crime. That began my love affair with Mr. Larson’s books!
I read other reviews that said there is a lot of his research material included in this book, and that it sometimes got tedious. I did not find this to be the case at all. Yes, he includes the research and identifies the sources. But I would hope if you are reading history you would want sources stated and verified. I also felt that his research really fleshed out the people involved.
This is a fascinating book that explores all events leading up to the Civil War. It is so interesting to see through diaries and court accounts and senate reports the thoughts and actions of Anderson, Lincoln, Ruffin, and a myriad of other people. We see them as real people from childhood to adulthood. I love that through the author’s detailed approach, the reader is able to see every component that led to this war. I learned a lot of new information, and found the population of South Carolina at that time fascinating, and also frightening.
There is disturbing personal information about Anderson that had me seething. The description of slave life is detailed and heartbreaking. Larson does not gloss over this- he paints a very real yet heartbreaking visualization.
I feel that we need to know the history so that we can learn from it, and pave a brighter future.
I highly recommend this book!!!
June 22, 2024
"...every writer in every time brings to the field a unique lens through which to view the world." Master storyteller and historian Erik Larson does just that in this detailed microhistory of the beginning of the Civil War. Utilizing official Civil War documents, letters, telegrams, and diaries, Larson analyzes the events in the six months prior to the firing of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the war. The battle over Fort Sumter, as Larson explains, is "...the greatest of ironies: In thirty-four hours of some of the fiercest bombardment the world had ever seen, no one was killed or even seriously injured, yet this bloodless attack would trigger a war that killed more Americans than any other conflict in the country's history."
Larson began work on this book during the COVID pandemic. With little ability to visit archives and physical resources, the author delved into what he had available to him, namely online resources and books by earlier historians. The one source that provided the spine of his thesis is The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies compiled by the U.S. Department of War. It is with these resources that Larson provides the reader with his unique lens with which to view the world in 1860-1865. Much of the book centers around the transfer of power from President Buchanan to Lincoln and the Presidential Inauguration of 1861, along with the rising tension between the North and South as eleven states ultimately left the Union and joined the Confederacy.
Besides Buchanan, Lincoln and a host of interesting characters like Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and pro-slavery advocate who was credited with the first shot of the war, were two pivotal men who had to deal with their own internal demons while dealing with the demon of unrest in the country. The first was Robert Anderson, the Union Major who commanded Fort Sumter. He was a native Kentuckian who was a slave-holder but was fiercely loyal to the Union and held the fort as long as he could against his fellow Southerners. The second was General Robert E. Lee. He was a loyal commander in the Union army until his own state of Virginia seceded and joined the Confederacy. He considered slavery a "moral and political evil" and considered secession an "anarchy." He ultimately was loyal to his home state, joining the Confederacy, despite his personal views.
Larson also ties these events to an interesting topic of the Code Duello, a written code of conduct utilized by Southern gentlemen in one-on-one combat, or "the duel." This book is written in seven parts, and each part is loosely connected to one of the rules of the Code Duello and provides an interesting arc to Larson's lens. I'm on the fence as to whether Larson fully utilized this connection as well as he could have. Overall, it is a unique way of situating the events prior to the siege at Fort Sumter.
As with all of Erik Larson's books, I was thoroughly engrossed in his prose and storytelling. What will he write about next?
Larson began work on this book during the COVID pandemic. With little ability to visit archives and physical resources, the author delved into what he had available to him, namely online resources and books by earlier historians. The one source that provided the spine of his thesis is The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies compiled by the U.S. Department of War. It is with these resources that Larson provides the reader with his unique lens with which to view the world in 1860-1865. Much of the book centers around the transfer of power from President Buchanan to Lincoln and the Presidential Inauguration of 1861, along with the rising tension between the North and South as eleven states ultimately left the Union and joined the Confederacy.
Besides Buchanan, Lincoln and a host of interesting characters like Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and pro-slavery advocate who was credited with the first shot of the war, were two pivotal men who had to deal with their own internal demons while dealing with the demon of unrest in the country. The first was Robert Anderson, the Union Major who commanded Fort Sumter. He was a native Kentuckian who was a slave-holder but was fiercely loyal to the Union and held the fort as long as he could against his fellow Southerners. The second was General Robert E. Lee. He was a loyal commander in the Union army until his own state of Virginia seceded and joined the Confederacy. He considered slavery a "moral and political evil" and considered secession an "anarchy." He ultimately was loyal to his home state, joining the Confederacy, despite his personal views.
Larson also ties these events to an interesting topic of the Code Duello, a written code of conduct utilized by Southern gentlemen in one-on-one combat, or "the duel." This book is written in seven parts, and each part is loosely connected to one of the rules of the Code Duello and provides an interesting arc to Larson's lens. I'm on the fence as to whether Larson fully utilized this connection as well as he could have. Overall, it is a unique way of situating the events prior to the siege at Fort Sumter.
As with all of Erik Larson's books, I was thoroughly engrossed in his prose and storytelling. What will he write about next?
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