New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Bestseller — Erik Larson transforms the five chaotic months before the Civil War into a riveting political thriller. Through secret diaries and forgotten letters, he reveals how Fort Sumter became the flashpoint that ignited a nation—history that reads like edge-of-your-seat suspense.
$35.00
New York Times Bestseller — Erik Larson, the master storyteller behind The Splendid and the Vile, delivers a riveting account of America’s darkest hour: the five chaotic months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the first shots of the Civil War.
November 1860. The country is fracturing. Southern states are seceding, one after another, and a newly elected president watches helplessly as the Union crumbles. All eyes turn to a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. What happens there will determine the fate of a nation.
Larson weaves together the stories of unforgettable characters caught in history’s crosshairs: Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s conflicted commander torn between Southern sympathies and Union loyalty; Edmund Ruffin, a vain radical stoking the fires of secession; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, whose sharp observations reveal the moral complexities of a society built on slavery. At the center stands Lincoln himself, battling his own cabinet while desperately trying to prevent the unthinkable.
Drawing on diaries, secret correspondence, and plantation records, Larson transforms this familiar chapter of American history into a political thriller that feels urgently contemporary. The Wall Street Journal calls it “a feast of historical insight and narrative verve,” while the Los Angeles Times praises its “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult.”
This is history that reads like suspense—a haunting reminder that catastrophe often arrives unrecognized until the moment it’s too late. Perfect for readers who love meticulously researched narratives that illuminate the past while speaking to our present moment.
a feast of historical insight and narrative verve
riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult
Larson is a gifted storyteller, and in The Demon of Unrest, he has found a story that demands to be told—and retold.
Larson's account of the months between Lincoln's election and the attack on Fort Sumter is a page-turner.
Larson's trademark narrative style—cinematic, propulsive, and deeply human—transforms a well-known period into something that feels immediate and urgent.
A vivid, suspenseful account of the five months between Lincoln's election and the outbreak of war.
Larson's meticulous research and narrative gifts make this essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how democracies fracture.
| Weight | 1.25 lbs |
|---|---|
| Fiction Type | |
| Book Author | |
| Subject | 19th Century, Biography & Autobiography, Civil War Period (1850-1877), History, Presidents & Heads Of State, United States |
| Accolade |
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