Recently finished The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson.
As with all the Larson books I've read, this was a meticulously-researched and compelling tale. It also gave context and detail to a part of US history that I never learned much about - namely, the attack on Fort Sumter and the run up to the Civil War.
In his introduction, Larson draws parallels to the attempted insurrection on January 6 with the uncertainty that Lincoln faced when it came time to certify his election - and I certainly picked up on the eerie reflections of rhetoric from 1860 and 2024.
But what really stayed with me were issues of identity. Larson shows us, through diaries and letters, how many successionists tied their entire sense of self to their political beliefs. And how this intractable blinded them to the morality of their actions - and made it impossible for them to rethink any of their beliefs or stances.
A quick glance at the reviews of the book on GoodReads certainly lends credence to this idea - as a number of readers saw the January 6 language and immediately rated the book as one star.
There's a lot to learn about the future by studying the past - and books like this are a great way to dig deeper and challenge our assumptions.
Did anyone else read this one?
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