My Interest
I’ve been a Civil War freak nearly all of my life. My great uncle, artist Edwin Fulwider, mapped every single battle field–even the tiny ones in places like Oregon–yes, really, for the centenary of the Civil War in a commission paid by Ford Motor Company. The map he created hung for years in Ford HQ. Sadly, he’s been “canceled” and now his beautiful artwork is worthless.
Anyway, there are a lot of times today when I think of the Succession movement in the late 1850s and early 1860s. We are at that point today–with the country totally polarized between the radical right and the radical left making it hard for moderates like myself to not knock heads together. As a moderate there are things I agree with Red Tie on and there are things I don’t agree with the current POTUS on, but I’m stuck in the middle.
But history runs in cycles. We again have the “robber barons”–the huge corporation CEO’s today are the robber barons making way, way, too much money and using it to buy a political structure that supports them and, in the case of the SCTOUS, do their obvious bidding. Of course I support taxes on the super-super-rich! Only the super rich don’t! They function as our monarchy, don’t they? We give them a super-sweet tax deal and they keep their wealth while our infrastructure crumbles, housing is unaffordable, healthcare costs off the charts, but they keep the royal palaces. [I enjoy following the various royal families of the world because I DON’T pay for them. I’m pretty sure I’d not be wearing a blue rosette if I was in the UK!]
The Story and My Thoughts
“…when men come under the influence of fanaticism there’s no telling where their impulses or passions may drive them….”
“…ordinarily this would be the most routine of events the celebration of the constitutions and the peaceful succession….”
“…full of confident menace”
Note: You do not need to agree with me. We still have a free country in regards to most speech. Any nasty comments will be deleted.
The election of 1860 was either about slavery or it was about states’ rights. Like today, the country was divided– powder keg just waiting for a stray spark to set it afire. While our country’s only bachelor (and today many say “gay”) president was typical of the old breed of chief executives–he did little, Abraham Lincoln, who cultivated his image as a “hick” or a “hayseed” was anything but. He was a very successful lawyer and married a leading daughter of the south–Mary Todd, of the Lexington, Kentucky Todd family. His son would go to Harvard–and due to his maternal family being on the opposite side he paid a substitute to serve (as did President Theodore Roosevelt’s father for the same reason). What happened in the election and just after until the firing on Fort Sumter is the subject of this book. Larson draws heavily on the Diary of Mary Chestnut–an excellent read for anyone who likes diaries or the Civil War.
My friend and fellow blogger, Susan at Girls in White Dresses, reviewed this book last week. Why not click on the linked text and read her take on it, too?
Some silly things I learned:
- Chewing tobacco and needing spittoons everywhere was only an American thing. Sad to say, all these years later, down here on the Ohio River where tobacco is still grown, people still chew. While most don’t do old school Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco, Skol smokeless tobacco cans are ubiquitous among ball cap wearing working men in this area, as are Mt. Dew bottles for spit. Still repulsive.
- The “limelight” is a term that comes from theater (which I knew) from what they burned to make the light.
It’s hard for me to do justice to the story because I have read so much on the Lincoln and the Civil War. Larson focuses on the “Chivalry”–the planter and quasi-aristocrat class in Charleston and elsewhere in the South who had a highly exaggerated sense of “honor.” Honestly, they made me think of both the far right and the far left today. Hear me out! They reminded me of the far left today being outraged on behalf of all sorts of people who don’t necessary take offense at what the far left thing they should! Sending notes to announce the offense committed (social media today), calling them out for a duel (today’s virtue signaling and protests) –so familiar. Then there was the obsession with King Cotton and slavery. That part reminded me of the Cult of Mr. Red Tie–those who see January 6, unbelievably as a “peaceful” protest at the Capitol (in which they called for hanging the Vice President for doing his job, upholding his oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution instead of giving in to his boss, while running wild in the building and attacking the Capitol Police protecting the building and law makers).
They also said slavery wasn’t “evil” it was in the Bible. Slavery was a “way of life.” While it makes little difference if you read about a person being a “slave” or an “enslaved person” it does make a huge difference when read that various Founding Fathers as well as the leaders of the Confederacy owned X-number of “Human Beings.” That makes it real Sadly, the Bible I love has been used throughout much of Western history to defend the indefensible,
Larson writes of the bell tolling for curfew and all of the enslaved people who were hired out to employers, and who wore a badge proclaiming their status, had to to be in by the time the bell stopped tolling. In Carmel, Indiana, in the 1990s there was a move to make employees at a certain company put placards on their cars proclaiming where they worked so residents would know it was “ok” for them to be in Carmel. Yes, in the 1990s. That came to mind every time I read of that bell.
The men of that Chivalry were so certain of their destiny–to win and have their own slave-holding land. I couldn’t help but think of the brutally honest scene in Gone With the Wind when West Pointer Rhett Butler sets Chivalry member Charles Hamilton straight on this by telling of the Yankee navy, cannon factories, and more. It took a while, but gentlemen of honor, with no shoes, no bullets, and no food, don’t fight better than “rabble” as poor naive Charles had called the Yankee army.
I did think Larson ignored the “rest” of the South–the poor backwoods whites, the subsistence farmers who may have owned one or two slaves who lived as badly as their masters as well as the merchant class and middle class. But this too reminded me of today. The Elephant in Congress today looks only to that other not-so-chivalrous “chivalry” (i.e. the Cult of Mr. Red Tie) and does it’s bidding only. The quote above, “…full of confident menace,” sums up Mr. Red Tie and his legions. Anyone who tries to turn on this man ends up circling back, shamefaced, and saying they now “support” Red Tie again. The men and women of that party ignore the cries of people from the “old” party–the party of Eastern Establishment, of G.W.H. Bush and others with prep school and Harvard diplomas and fraternity/secret society memberships and worldwide outlook. The party of William F. Buckley and erudite, well educated, and old monied men. They also ignore the cries of the moderates and swing-votes, largely dwelling in suburbs-all of whom are crucial in an election. Just like the Chivalry of the South they listen only to their own voices.
I’m certain this book will win awards this year. Larson deserves them, even if I have taken him down a little for ignoring all but the uber-rich in this book.
My Verdict
3.75
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson (nonfiction)
I listened to the audio version of this book.
Want to Know More?
Click here: In this post I talk about Mary Chestnut’s Diary as well as a novel about Mrs. Jefferson Davis, and mention a joint biography (my review was lost on my old blog) of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln and Mrs. Jefferson Davis.
Hopewell's Public Library of Life 