Elizabeth George's Reviews > The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

I'm a big fan of Erik Larson's non-fiction. His research is impeccable and his books are usually gripping: a full court press of history, personality, conflict, and outcome that propels the reader through the book like a locomotive. I didn't feel that way about this book. While it's an amazingly granular look at what events and personalities led to the surrendering of Fort Sumter (beginning with Lincoln's election in 1860 and ending with Sumter's fall the following April (with a final jump in time to a postwar reclaiming of Sumter by the victorious union) its very granularity is what, for this reader, bogged the book down. I learned a great deal about specific individuals who were either observers or participants in the event in Charleston, South Carolina, and I also learned a great deal about governmental individuals who--prior to my reading of the book--I'd known by name only. And there are certainly characters of admirably nobility (most particularly Major Robert Anderson), despicable racism (James Henry Hammond) and scandalous treachery (Edmund Ruffin), the pace of the book begins to drag due to the sheer number of people and tangential events that the reader is exposed to. So, for this reader, The Demon of Unrest was a bit of a slog and for the first time in any book by Erik Larson, I looked several times to see how many pages were left to read. I hate to say this as I have loved all of his books until now. This one just didn't do it for me although that is not to say that it won't be an excellent read for students of the Civil War who want an in-depth look at the particular event that lit the conflagration that ultimately killed 750,000 people and lay waste to vast areas of the south.