The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

pick

Excellent account of the months leading up to April 12, 1861, when the first shells were launched by Confederate forces on Fort Sumter and the U.S. Civil War began. Larson draws on diaries and various narratives from both sides to show how they danced warily around each other until the inevitable clash. I was most fascinated by the parts about Lincoln‘s preparations for his arrival into DC for his inauguration.

Karisimo I'm halfway through it right now! I like how the intro encouraged readers to forget they know the outcome and view it as the people of the day would have. 2d

Amiable @Karisimo Yes! I was also amazed that Larson could maintain a sense of tension throughout the book when we do all know how it ends. And also -- it's fascinating to see how much circling around and ā€nothingnessā€ happened in the months leading up to the attack. Makes you really think about how wars start and what the final straw is that nudges the parties over that final cliff to the land of no return. (edited) 2d

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SilversReviews

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

GIVEAWAY - head over to this link for the giveaway on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C63oUuVrTBB/?igsh=MXZ0NzF0bmNqczU5ZA==

Bklover Ooh love his books!! 3d

SilversReviews @Bklover Are you on Instagram? Hope so. It‘s a friend‘s giveaway. I see you entered. She has a note that you need to follow. Might want to check back. (edited) 3d

Bklover I am- thanks- I‘ll go check. š (fixed it- thank you! I thought I already followed her.) You‘re the best!!šø (edited) 2d

SilversReviews @Bklover š€š€ 22h

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marleed

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

pick

In my bits of studying the politics leading up to the American Civil War I momentarily memorized enough names and dates to pass the subsequent test, but no interest beyond a course. This book was fascinating- S Carolina was the Mc. Now I‘ll remember beyond Abraham Lincoln and Robert E Lee. I‘m intrigued if the next time I reading/watching Civil War material, I‘ll be like ā€¦oh yeah, Seward, Ruffin, Beauregard, Andersonā€¦ I know about them.

AmandaBlaze I listened to his ghost story No One Goes Alone and really enjoyed it. 7d

Ruthiella I remember so much more when there is a narrative around historical events that if I were to read straight history. š‘¨ 7d

RamsFan1963 Have you read Brad Meltzer's The Lincoln Conspiracy or Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals? Both books dovetail nicely into Larson's story. 7d

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marleed @AmandaBlaze I‘ve not read that one yet! 6d

marleed @Ruthiella You and me both! 6d

marleed @RamsFan1963 I haven‘t and thank you. I‘d like to read more on this aspect now. 6d

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RamsFan1963

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

pick

47/150 I'm not sure if giving this 5 š is enough praise for this amazing, exciting, thought provoking, and emotional story. Dead Wake is my favorite Larson book, but this is a close second. Drawing from both the Confederate and Union sides, Larson weaves a thrilling drama of the battle of Fort Sumter, which lead to the American Civil War. Unrealistically, neither side thought it would lead to war, and if it did, it would be short ā¬‡ļø¸ā¬‡ļø¸

RamsFan1963 with little loss of life. Of course, now we know that they couldn't have been more wrong, as the war was the bloodiest in American history. I chose to do the audiobook, and it was narrated very well by Will Patton, his voice added gravitas to the story. I do have one quibble. There was some censorship which I found odd, considering this is a history of the Civil War, every time someone used the N-word it was bleeped out. 1w

RamsFan1963 Why? In historical context, the word was used quite liberally by Southerners, and Northerners, so why bleep it? Who was it going to offend? Who didn't expect slave owners to speak of their slaves in that manner? 1w

Lindy I imagine that hearing the N-word is hurtful to certain listeners, even though it is historically accurate. By bleeping it, listeners know exactly what word it is, while at the same time there‘s a reminder for everyone that this word has power and isn‘t to be used lightly. 1w

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RamsFan1963 @Lindy Maybe so, and had this been fiction I probably wouldn't have noticed or cared. If this was a book about WWII, would you expect them to bleep out slang words for Jews, Germans, Italians or Japanese? I wonder if this is a wholly American thing, expecting American readers to be more sensitive to the word than people in other countries? I'm not condoning the word, but I've never run into it being censored in a non-fiction history book. 1w

Suet624 Larson really can do no wrong - every book of his is superb. 1w

marleed @RamsFan1963 @lindy, I‘m reading a physical copy in stereo with the audio. The book writes nā€”-r when quoting transcript rather than spelling out the slur. Knowing that may give credence to the audio bleep - which is a jarring sound while wearing headphones with the narration. 1w

Lindy @marleed good to know, thanks š 1w

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Scochrane26

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

Just an FYI for the fans of Erik Larson who live near enough to attend. Hosted by Joseph-Beth bookstore in Cincinnati, more info is on their site under events.

marleed I saw him speak about the tagged on the evening 13Mar2020. His wife worked in a NYC hospital. He flew from there to Chicago to a packed auditorium in Kansas City. His airport layover was eerie. It was clear he was concerned (no hand shaking or book signing). I look at my unsigned copy of the tagged on my shelves and always remember that this is when a pandemic got real for me.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

Scochrane26 @marleed That‘s an interesting memory. I hope you were able to enjoy his talk. The last book signing I went to before was Erin Morgenstern & Alix E Harrow, but it was in Jan or Feb of 2020. 4w

jlhammar So excited for a new Larson! 3w

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Susanita

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

1. I‘m going to Malice Domestic at the end of the month! Sujata Massey is the Guest of Honor, so that‘s a good reason to keep reading in the Perveen Mistry series.
2. Not preordered, but I put the tagged book on hold on Libby.
#two4tuesday

TheSpineView

TheSpineView Love using Libby. Thanks for playing! 1mo

37 likes1 comment

RamsFan1963

The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War | Erik Larson

The tagged book for sure. Erik Larson is an auto-pick author for me. This is his first book dealing with the American Civil War era, I expecting it to be detailed, well researched, and very informative.

#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern

AmyG Nice. I love his books. This should be especially interesting considering the climate we live in. (edited) 4mo

BookmarkTavern That sounds really interesting! Thanks for posting! 4mo

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