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Talking About Books: The Demon of Unrest In-Person
This month we will be discussing The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larsen.
- Date:
- Thursday, April 17, 2025 Show more dates
- Time:
- 11:00am - 12:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Christiansburg Community Room
- Branch:
- Christiansburg Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Book Discussion
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. ...[An] account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter--a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.'