Erik Larson Illuminates History

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.1 • 766 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you haven’t heard of Erik Larson, you don’t read enough non-fiction. A giant in the industry and an immense talent, Erik is turning his attention to the beginnings of the Civil War in his latest, The Demon of Unrest. It’s the nail biting account of how we ended up turning guns against one another, North to South, with a specific focus on the stand off at Fort Sumter. Told through the eyes of rich characters through their unique perspectives, Larson brings new learning to an oft discussed topic…how the Union tore itself apart over slavery. You won’t want to miss this one. Books mentioned in this week's episode: The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson Lethal Passage by Erik Larson Thunderstruck by Erik Larson The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities by Erik Larson Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson No One Goes Alone: A Novel by Erik Larson The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson Mary Chesnut's Diary by Mary Boykin Chestnut The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello book nerds. Happy Thursday. It is another episode of the bookcase. I am the daughter,
0:11.8	part of the hosting team. I am Kate Gibson. Hello. And I'm Charlie Gibson, her father. And I don't,
0:18.5	do you need to call them nerds? I think that's somewhat derogatory of the loyal,
0:23.6	wonderful people who have the intellectual discernment to tune in to the bookcase every week.
0:30.6	Well, I don't consider it derogatory. I think we embrace it. I think we love it. And I think we say,
0:36.0	you know what? I read, therefore I am. I am a nerd.
0:39.1	I embrace it. I love it. Stand up and be counted. Okay. If reading makes you a nerd, then I plead
0:44.5	guilty. We've got a really good book this week to recommend to people. Eric Larson is probably,
0:50.7	I think, one of the best narrative nonfiction writers that we have. He wrote The Splendid
0:56.6	and the Vile, which was a wonderful volume about Churchill and his personal habits and actions
1:01.7	during World War II. He wrote in the Garden of the Beasts, which was about the period before
1:06.0	World War II. Now he's written a book called The Demon of Unrest. And I'm always interested in the periods that he
1:12.4	picks to write about. This is the period, just a six-month period. He's written a lot of pages,
1:17.8	about six months, just between the time of Lincoln's election in 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter,
1:24.3	which began the Civil War on April 12th of 1861, which he calls the most
1:30.4	substantial day in American history, which is an interesting, I've been thinking about that
1:35.7	ever since. But for just six months, you really get into this story. Both of us did,
1:40.4	right, Kate? Oh, absolutely. I think, you know, he's a giant in narrative nonfiction,
1:45.2	as you say, and the Splendid and the Vile, in the Garden of Bees thunderstruck, another one of his.
1:50.4	He has an amazing trick of taking periods that I feel like I know a lot about and having me
1:56.0	look through a prism that I had not considered. The Splendid and the Viol I considered very much to be a very
2:01.2	personal book about Churchill and the Blitz. And then in the Garden of the Beast about Dodd,
	...

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