The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson

Narrated by: Will Patton, Erik Larson

Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The 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 in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times).

“Perhaps no other historian has ever rendered the struggle for Sumter in such authoritative detail as Larson does here.”—The Washington Post

“Even history buffs will find much that is new here.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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 them. 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.

©2024 Crown (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Larson, one of today’s pre-eminent nonfiction storytellers, trawls a variety of archives to explore the historically momentous months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the Battle of Fort Sumter.”—The New York Times

“Perhaps no other historian has ever rendered the struggle for Sumter in such authoritative detail as Larson does here. . . . Few historians, too, have done a better job of untangling the web of intrigues and counter-intrigues that helped provoke the eventual attack and surrender.”—The Washington Post

“The immediacy of the story in The Demon of Unrest—as well as on-the-ground reports from inside South Carolina's Fort Sumter, an early Union bulwark—lend the book vigor.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

Meh...

Not his best work. Anticlimactic and monotone narration. Pretty disappointing honestly. I found my mind wandering and having to rewind several chapters multiple times.

A very good book

Read it…..think about it. Even today we see the same strains of egotism, dilema, blinding pride, heartfelt empathy, confusion, courage, tribal self justification, and despair.

A great education

Giving a human and detailed account of the time made it a great book.

The narration ruins this

Ugh- I usually skip any book narrated by Will Patten as I can’t stand how he whistles on EVERY SINGLE S. But Erik Larson is one of my favorite authors so…
How is this man a narrator for a living?!? He burns my ears. Ruined my enjoyment of this novel.

Vividly Told History of the Start of the Civil War

This history is a brilliant interweaving of events, contrasting values, economic and political forces and personalities that provide a vivid picture of South Carolina, the South and North, and Washington D.C. at the time of the attack on Fort Sumter to start the American Civil War.
The threatened status of the planter aristocracy in South Carolina, The Chivalry and their view that slavery was a divine institution absolutely critical to the economy and society of the South provide forces driving state secessionists and their absolute loathing of abolitionists dominating the Republican Party. The newly elected President, Abraham Lincoln, was perceived as the embodiment of future imagined abolitionist oppression.
Letters, diaries, speeches, journalist accounts and newspaper reports are sources for an exciting view of the complex people who were driving events including Robert Anderson, James Hammond, Edmund Ruffin, James Buchanan, Mary Chestnut, Abraham Lincoln and William Seward.

Will Patton delivers a masterful narration of the story and voices the colorful characters who drove history.

Larson at his best!!!

Larson is one of my favorite authors. I have read just about all of his books. Dead Wake. Isaac’s Storm. In the Garden of Beasts. Etc etc. I will say this is in his top three best books. He takes an incredible story and brings it to life. It puts you in Charleston on the eve of the Civil War with incredible people who made the history.

fort sumter

fort sumter expertly told thru fresh new sources. Well done,incredible listen. truley an excellent story

Great insight

Really started to understand the south and their attitude . The south clearly were different people. They saw blacks as property

Fantastic! Very well written, & so interesting!

Will Patton brings the pages to life! The author humanizes those historic characters, and makes the subject thoroughly riveting.

Disappointing

Book 40 of 2024

I was excited for this read...Erik covers a short span of turbulent history during the United States Civil War in a well written way as he always does. He (briefly) covers the rise of unrest and dissent from the confederate states, and while he does cover the topic of slavery (more than the book would lead), he, like many others, ignores that slavery (while bad) wasn't what the fight was over. The hyper focus on slavery with the civil war doesn't make it what it was, the straw that broke the camel's back. It vastly ignores the point of states' rights vs federalism. A topic Erik mentions in passing, almost as a joke. Yet, we see the cancer federalism has grown to today (the very thing many feared so long ago). He does good work, so I can't say it was poorly written, but I will say it lacked what the title and description sold it to be.

I would say this is a 3/5 and falls between "The Devil in the White City" 5/5, and "Lethal Passage" 1/5.