A review of the book 'The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War' written by Erik Larson.
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.
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.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War' written by Erik Larson.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Erik Larson is the author of six previous national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than twelve million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.
Let me read a brief description of the book:
On 6 November 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 Harbor: 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.
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.
Some of things I found interesting and revealing in this brilliant book:
1. Mississippi’s secession convention voted 84 to 15 in favour of immediate exit from the Union and became the second state after South Carolina to do so. The delegates were very clear about their motivation.
“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world,” they wrote in their official declaration. “Its labour supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.”
2. Asst. Surgeon Crawford revealed a deeper fear, one shared by many Northerners, as to the threat might pose to the racial status quo. Crawford feared that the Republican Party had become populated with abolitionist zealots. “I abhor fanaticism and despise cant,” he wrote. “The party is full of both, and any proposition to lift the negro to the social level of the white man is to me monstrous and insane.”
3. William Russell of the London Times understood that the true cause of the conflict, no matter how hard anyone tried to disguise it, was slavery. He called it a “curse” and likened it to a cancer whose inner damage was masked by the victim's outward appearance of health. He marveled that the South seemed intent on staking its destiny on ground that the rest of the world had abandoned. “Never,” he wrote, “did a people enter a war so utterly destitute of any reason for waging it.”
4. In the bombardment, the Confederate batteries had fired 3,341 shells and balls, and Fort Sumter about a thousand. What was remarkable was that no one had been killed.
Here lay 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.
5. Between the day Lincoln issued his order and the date of the planned ceremony, the Civil War had all but come to an end, with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9. The “expiation” Lee had feared, what Mary Lincoln called “this hideous nightmare,” had come to pass, killing 750,000 Americans. South Carolina alone lost 21,000 men, more than a third of the 60,000 state citizens who fought. Its planters grieved a more venal loss: The end of slavery cost them three hundred million dollars in human capital overnight.
Overall, “The Demon of Unrest” is a masterful blend of biography, history, and narrative non-fiction. Erik Larson has once again proven his skill in bringing history to life, making this book a must-read for anyone interested in Lincoln, the Civil War, or American history in general. It’s a compelling reminder of how the struggles of the past continue to resonate in contemporary society, making it a timely and relevant exploration for today’s readers.
I give this book 4.5/5.
Before I finish, I would like to quote what the author has said at the beginning of the book:
QUOTE
I invite you now to step into the past, to the time of fear and the dissension, and experience the passion, heroism, and heartbreak—even humour—as if you were living in that day and did not know how the story would end. 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 of secession and civil war.
UNQUOTE
At the time of recording this book review, the book is available only in Hardcover and Paperback versions and not yet available in Kindle and Audible formats. I have given the respective buy links in the show notes. Please check them out for the latest prices.
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