The Demon of

Unrest: Erik Larson

Erik Larson writes narrative history.

With “The Demon of Unrest,” Larson pens “A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War,” as the subtitle notes.

The book chronicles the developments and the people involved leading to the early 1861 siege of Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Abraham Lincoln had been elected president in the November 1860 election. President James Buchanan sat idle in the White House during the months leading to Lincoln’s inauguration while the South contemplated secession.

Southern states feared that Lincoln would abolish slavery once inaugurated. Long-time secessionists played on this fear to urge Southern states to leave the Union. South Carolina was the first to secede.

As South Carolina moved toward declaring itself independent of the United States of America, military personnel in Fort Sumter remained uncertain how to act – did the fort remain federal and part of the Union if South Carolina seceded or was it part of the independent South Carolina? With no orders from Washington, D.C., Major Robert Anderson presumed to preserve the fort’s allegiance to the Union, even though he sympathized with the Southern cause.

These events led to a siege where no one was killed on either side but started the Civil War which claimed 750,000 lives.

Larson writes about the start of the Civil War with the same attention to people and details that have made him a bestseller of historic narratives.

His work is based solely on research but he discovers dialogue and items both big and small that bring his history books to life. He breathes the sense of a novel’s drama and personalities into history.

“The Demon of Unrest” is not as gripping as his masterpiece, “The Devil in the White City,” about a serial killer loose during the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, or his most recent “The Splendid and the Vile,” about Britain’s stand against the Nazis during the Blitz. Still, “The Demon of Unrest” is fascinating.

Larson has a way of bringing the people and situations to life. We ride with Lincoln to D.C. as he hopes to heal a fracturing nation. We meet Edwin Ruffin who travels throughout the South breathing the fires of secession. We hunker down with Anderson and his men inside Fort Sumter. We read the acid-tongued diary of Mary Boykin Chestnut, the wife of a Southern planter and eventual Confederate officer.

And if we’re paying attention, we can see ourselves in the story of the start of the Civil War – a nation divided, a nation broiling with anger with other Americans who hold different views, a nation teetering toward a violent catastrophe.

In “The Demon of Unrest,” there’s not only history to learn but, perhaps, a lesson as well.

Willie Nelson’s

Letters to America: Wille Nelson

During the COVID-19 shutdown, Willie Nelson wasn’t on the road again. He was off the road and at home like the rest of the nation and much of the world.

He spent part of that time penning what would become “Willie Nelson’s Letters to America,” a collection of essays, letters, jokes and the lyrics to many of his best-known songs.

Here, Nelson shares stories of his life and amazing career, rising from his time as a poor child who liked to sing and write songs in Abbott, Texas, to becoming something of an American treasure.

He also pens letters addressed to everyone from family to friends to fans to his heroes to God and country to his guitar.

He shares his philosophies on life and love, politics and friendship, to history and heartache.

Throughout, he includes the words to songs he’s either penned alone or with others. Songs such as “Crazy,” “Night Life,” “Hello Walls” and far more recent hits and favorites.

And he tells plenty of jokes.

“Letters to America” is an interesting, fast-paced read about a long-lived, long-loved American life.