Date: 23 June 2024
Location: Linda and Reynolds
This is the sixth non-fiction Erik Larson book that the Bookers have read. This is more books than we have read by any other author in our thirty years of readings, and I believe that we have all enjoyed every one.
Larson has a very effective formula for his books: He focusses on a major historical event or situation and provides a wealth of factual information about the event. In addition, he also identifies individuals who were involved or closely associated with the event. Then, drawing upon their letters, diaries or other documentation, he is able to incorporate their personal thoughts and actions into the context of the main event.
In The Demon of Unrest Larson basically covers the months from Lincoln’s election to the surrender of Ft. Sumter. He provides a great deal of information about the events during that period, and he also gives a lot of background information on some of the key individuals involved.
In addition to the fascinating history that he presents, I especially enjoyed his quotes from the diary of Mary Chesnut, the wife of a senior confederate official. Besides her more serious musings about the evils of slavery, it was delightful to read about a former governor’s ‘flirtations’ with her – which she seemed to relish mainly because it annoyed her husband.
Of course the main focus of the book were the events leading up to the secession of the southern states and the attack on Ft Sumter. It is interesting to speculate how things may have been different had President Buchanan shown the kind of leadership that Andrew Jackson did in squashing South Carolina’s Nullification Ordinance in 1833. Things may have turned out very differently, but, then again, it may not have made any real difference. As proclaimed by one South Carolina politician, who was opposed to secession, “South Carolina is too small for a Republic and too big for an insane asylum.”
— Bob