DEMON OF UNREST: Why the Civil War Matters Today (with Erik Larson)

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erik Larson is probably the most successful popular historian working today. His books, which include “The Devil in the White City” and “The Splendid and the Vile,” have sold a staggering 12 million copies. His latest, “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War,” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list this week. It’s a gripping account of the five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the outbreak of the Civil War — a 163-year-old chapter in our history that Erik says is alarmingly relevant. Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Erik Larson ABOUT THE NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB: We all know that reading is the best investment we can make in ourselves. But figuring out what to read is easier said than done. That's why we started the Next Big Idea Club. We get the best new books — as chosen by our friends Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — into the hands of curious people. Like you! Join us today at nextbigideaclub.com And use promo code PODCAST for a special discount.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the small hours of a black night, a rowboat cut through a seething harbor. It was April 12, 1861. The boat was headed for an artificial island,
0:19.2	built in the middle of a shipping channel and crowned with a giant brick Pentagon.
0:25.0	Fort Sumter.
0:27.8	The fort was under the command of Major Robert Anderson and staffed by 75 men who had pledged allegiance to the United States of America.
0:37.0	Except those states were no longer united.
0:40.0	The fort they had sworn to protect, sat in the middle of Charleston Harbor.
0:45.0	And a few months before, South Carolina had seceded, repulsed by the thought of being
0:50.9	governed by a newly elected northerner,
0:53.6	Abraham Lincoln, convinced that he would abolish the thing they held most dear,
0:59.0	slavery.
1:00.9	And so for more than a hundred days Major Anderson and his men had lived under siege.
1:06.7	The South Carolinians believed that Fort Sumter was rightfully theirs, and they were trying
1:12.0	to starve out the Union troops.
1:15.1	When the rowboat reached Fort Sumter, three South Carolina officers, Confederates,
1:19.9	clambered out and issued a demand.
1:22.8	Surrender.
1:24.5	Anderson took this under advisement.
1:27.2	For nearly the next three hours,
1:29.0	he and his officers debated what to do.
1:32.4	They had enough rations to last five days, so long as they went pretty much without food for three of them.
1:38.0	But when Anderson finally put it to a vote, the officers were unanimous.
1:44.1	They would hold the fort.
	...

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