The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War (Signed Book)

by Erik Larson

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Erik Larson is a superstar of blending historical narratives with thriller-esque propulsion and here he weaves a narrative around the Civil War, the central role of Fort Sumter and the eerie similarities between the political landscape then and now. Told in masterful prose that is as fascinating contextually as it is compulsively written, this is history for all readers.

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 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. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593735176
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/30/2024
Edition description:	Signed Edition
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Eric Larson is a journalist and author of several bestselling books including Thunderstruck, Dead Wake, The Devil in the White City, and In the Garden of Beasts. Acclaimed for bringing life to the mysteries of history, he won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing and in 2016 received the Chicago Public Library's Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Hometown:

Seattle, Washington

Date of Birth:

January 1, 1954

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, New York

Education:

B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1976; M.S., Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 1978

Editorial Reviews

This compelling audiobook about the beginning of the Civil War gains resonance from its parallels with today's divisions and drift toward violence. Will Patton's narration fits Larson's authorial voice, which is frank, factual, and artfully judicious in tone. Patton suggests historical voices, but his delivery is nuanced and understated, never showy. Brief chapters track the months leading up to the assault on Fort Sumter. The inactivity of the outgoing Buchanan administration, the separate preparations for defense and for attack in Charleston Harbor, Lincoln's arrival in disguise at the nation's capital--everything marks a widening separation. The attack on Fort Sumter is usually seen as a mere curtain-raiser, a spark that could have ignited a dozen different places. This outstanding audiobook tells a very different story. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2024 - AudioFile