This book was part of my TBR challenge for this year - 2 books down!! I will not lie, I am a big Eric Larson fan, particularly since reading Devil in the White City, so any new book by him is going to grab my attention. This one, though, was surprisingly slow going for me. Larson's latest take on history takes on the period of time in between Lincoln's election and when Lincoln actually takes office and focuses not only on the election, but on the firing of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This 400+ page book focuses on a very short few months, but is jam packed with information.
I was very impressed by the source material that Larson uses - he uses journals, diaries, letters and other first hand accounts to present us with a narrative about the months leading up to the fall of Fort Sumter. My favorite parts were not necessarily the military parts of the stories, which I found very dry, but the narratives about the society people and the politicians - Lincoln, seward and Jefferson Davis in particular. I found that the book was very well written but very long.
What the reader should be aware of is that Larson is not shy about providing us with his own political view on things. It is quite obvious that he is telling us the story through the lens of January 6, which is fine as long as you go into it knowing that and are able to read critically.
Definitely enjoyable, but not my fav Larson book!
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