“The Demon of Unrest”

“The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War” (2024) is Erik Larson’s recounting of the secession of South Carolina from the Union just as Abraham Lincoln is about to assume the Presidency. Secession is driven by deep, deep hatred for Yankees, abolitionists especially, and the absolute conviction that the plantation economy, “Cotton is King,” and privileged life for slaveholders are fully supported by even the God these folks worship. There is bitter resentment of the perceived intrusiveness by northerners in Southern life, without care about the even more extreme intrusiveness in the lives of slaves, aside for fear always of uprisings from within.  The book strikes this writer as a complement to Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park,” (1814) abou…