In April, the Village Literary Club will read Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War (2024, 592 pp). The Literary Club has read and enjoyed several of Larson's books. This one focuses on the period right before the Civil War--on secession, on South Carolina and Fort Sumter, and on Lincoln's inauguration and the first months of his term. It includes fascinating histories of some of the major players in this dramatic period: southern planter politicians and military leaders, as well as more well-known figures like James Buchanan, Jefferson Davis and William Seward. It is a long book with lots of detail, but as usual, Larson is good at keeping our interest in a story that most of us are not familiar with.

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