Demon of Unrest

[Matt McKeon]

Erik Larsen's latest about the run up to the bombardment of Fort Sumter. I think for Civil War students such as the folks here, there isn't a lot of new materials, but Larsen does focus on characters we have heard of, like Edmund Ruffin or James Hammond, providing background and context for their actions.

Its a firecracker of a book, fast moving and vivid. Highly recommended.

 

[jgoodguy]

Erik Larsen's latest about the run up to the bombardment of Fort Sumter. I think for Civil War students such as the folks here, there isn't a lot of new materials, but Larsen does focus on characters we have heard of, like Edmund Ruffin or James Hammond, providing background and context for their actions.

Its a firecracker of a book, fast moving and vivid. Highly recommended.

FWIW

 

[jgoodguy]

Sadly, I just in the last few months gave away my entire Civil War library, 100+ books. From what I remember the few months before Sumter, SC was in a state of collective insanity. I remember a passage from a book whose name I forget, where the surviving members of the movement met in a newspaper office then derelict after the war and remembered that insanity they led. SC was too small to be a country and too large to be an insane asylum. A good point Larson makes was the decline from greatness of SC and the attitude that it was still great.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Sadly, I just in the last few months gave away my entire Civil War library, 100+ books. From what I remember the few months before Sumter, SC was in a state of collective insanity. I remember a passage from a book whose name I forget, where the surviving members of the movement met in a newspaper office then derelict after the war and remembered that insanity they led. SC was too small to be a country and too large to be an insane asylum. A good point Larson makes was the decline from greatness of SC and the attitude that it was still great.

the quote, made famous by the Ken Burns' series, was by a SC unionist, who despite his doubts was swept along with the others in 1860.

The book does confirm that James Hammond was a "real piece of work."

Hope you're OK.