PORTLAND, Maine — Unlike many, many people who have written books about the Civil War, Erik Larson is not a Civil War buff. In approaching the subject he was, in his words, “an ingenue.”
But a few years ago, with political discord rising in the U.S. and more people tossing around the idea of secession, Larson—who was looking for an idea for a book—began delving into the origins of America’s bloodiest and most searing conflict.
“I started thinking, ‘How did the Civil War start?’” he recalls. “How did it really start? Maybe there was an interesting story there. And there was.”
Larson has a rare gift for bringing history alive. His books, covering subjects ranging from a serial killer to an epic hurricane to Winston Churchill, have sold a staggering thirty million copies.
His latest, “The Demon of Unrest,” is an account of the perilous and ultimately tragic five months from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the outbreak of war at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Four years of research and writing went into the 497-page book. What does it take to get him fired up so that he’s willing to commit to such demanding projects?
“I don’t know that I have to be fired up,” he told me. “But I have to be really convinced that it’s a great story.”