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blaineduncan's review
informative
medium-paced
4.5
In a book about the months leading up to the Civil War, details matter, and in The Demon of Unrest, you get plenty of them. It makes for a long read, but rarely a boring one. Larson, as he's known to do, makes a story out of the step-by-step events until you feel you know the men and women involved. Particularly memorable are Major Anderson and Edmund Ruffin, two men I'd never heard of. One I grew to admire more and more and one I grew to hate. It's an excellent book, especially for anyone who wants a granular view of the time just before the Civil War.
jkxmilmom88's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
mweis's review against another edition
3.0
*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
I love that Erik Larson makes nonfiction and history accessible and interesting to a larger audience. There are a number of people in my life who have talked about how The Devil in the White City got them back into reading, and they get excited about every new Larson release. I just wish his writing style worked better for me. I thought if any Larson book would work for me, it would be one about the American Civil War, and I did like this more than anything else I've read by him.
Larson begins the project by referencing the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, the only time he references modern politics, but that comment leaves the reader thinking about the event (and the entirety of the Trump years) through the whole book. He then uses personal narratives of several people to tell the story of the 1860 election through to the first shots at Fort Sumter. His research is thorough and the narrative is engaging. As one of my friends said, "I keep thinking I'll stop at the end of a chapter, and then he drops something that just makes me want to keep reading!" In that respect, it is an easy read but there is something that doesn't quite work for me and I haven't been able to put my finger on it.
I love that Erik Larson makes nonfiction and history accessible and interesting to a larger audience. There are a number of people in my life who have talked about how The Devil in the White City got them back into reading, and they get excited about every new Larson release. I just wish his writing style worked better for me. I thought if any Larson book would work for me, it would be one about the American Civil War, and I did like this more than anything else I've read by him.
Larson begins the project by referencing the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, the only time he references modern politics, but that comment leaves the reader thinking about the event (and the entirety of the Trump years) through the whole book. He then uses personal narratives of several people to tell the story of the 1860 election through to the first shots at Fort Sumter. His research is thorough and the narrative is engaging. As one of my friends said, "I keep thinking I'll stop at the end of a chapter, and then he drops something that just makes me want to keep reading!" In that respect, it is an easy read but there is something that doesn't quite work for me and I haven't been able to put my finger on it.