Morning Book Club

On November 12, 2025, Morning Book Club members gathered to discuss The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, which recounts the five months between Abraham Lincoln's election to the U.S. presidency in November 1860, and the Confederate shelling of Fort Sumter in April 1861, which ignited the American Civil War. Larson uses diaries and secret communiqués to explore the human drama behind the political crisis. The book focuses on the escalating tensions in Charleston, South Carolina, following secession. Key figures include President-elect Lincoln, the radical secessionist Edmund Ruffin, planter's wife Mary Boykin Chesnut, and, central to the conflict, Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander trying to hold Fort Sumter against immense pressure. Larson reveals how a series of miscommunications and miscalculations among political and military leaders pushed an already divided nation past the brink and into catastrophe.

Our group discussed how people had picnics watching the shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, viewing it as a spectacle at first. The cause of the Civil War was the South seceding because of slavery. Mary Chesnut was quite the character. She wrote in her diary every day about life in Charleston. Major Robert Anderson, Commander of the fort, was full of anxiety. Communications were poor between D.C. and the fort. Most people thought the Civil War would be over fast, but it wasn’t and many people lost their lives.

Our next book is The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael Osterholm. We’ll discuss it at our next meeting on December 10th at 10:00 a.m. at the Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Parkway.