"The Demon of Unrest"

 

Over the years, one of my favorite authors has become Erik Larson.  He has written historical non-fiction about such topics as devastating hurricanes, serial killers at the World's Fair, an American ambassador to Hitler's Germany, the sinking of the Lusitania, and Winston Churchill in his first year as Prime Minister of England.   All of his books are thoroughly researched, well written, and are both extremely informative and entertaining to read.

His newest, The Demon of Unrest is no exception.  In this one, Larson writes of the time period between Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency in 1860 and the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina that signaled the beginning of the Civil War.  The last quarter or so of the book covers the period of March 29 through April 14, that day of the attack on Sumter, and throughout, Larson Jumps back and forth between Charleston, Washington DC, and Montgomery, Alabama, the then capitol of the Confederacy, to write about events that were  taking place simultaneously during those perilous two weeks.  It was pretty gripping reading.

The subtitle of the book describes it best, I think: "A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War."

One thing that is somewhat terrifying about this book is the parallels that can be drawn to what took place back in 1860-61 to events that we are seeing in our country today.  In his introduction to the book, Larson states that he was deep into the research for this book when the events of January 6, 2021 took place.  He writes:

"As I watched the Capitol assault unfold on camera, I had the eerie feeling that the present and the 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."  Larson concludes his introduction by stating that as you read this book "I suspect your sense of dread will be all the more pronounced in light of today's political discord, which, incredibly, has led some benighted Americans to whisper once again secession and civil war."

So true and the idea, frankly, scares the shit out of me.

Four Stars from The Grandstander for this one.