THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson: Coming in Paperback!
The Crown Publishing Group is thrilled to announce the March 10, 2026 paperback release of the #1 New York Times bestseller, THE DEMON OF UNREST: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson.
In his last three riveting books, Erik Larson took us deep into the heart of wartime Europe. Now he brings us back to our own shores, to another time of crisis. In THE DEMON OF UNREST, he brilliantly captures the pivotal five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the bombardment of Fort Sumter the following April—a dramatic period that put the United States on a path to self-destruction.
Available on March 10, 2026.
As always, Larson delivers a propulsive narrative, full of suspenseful moments and tantalizing details, from a Confederate general’s flower-strewn desk to the “biscuit glacé and champagne frappé” served at a Charleston dinner party on the eve of war. We even learn the surprising origins of the most famous line in Lincoln’s first inaugural address.
Larson also gives us unforgettable characters. There’s William Russell, a British journalist who comes to America to try to understand the unfolding crisis (and becomes obsessed with the filthy custom of tobacco chewing); James Henry Hammond, a brutal slaveholder influential in shaping Southerners’ views; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wife of a prominent planter, who finds herself conflicted about both marriage and slavery.
Above all, THE DEMON OF UNREST is a story about a divided nation on the brink of one of the most consequential elections in American history. In the run-up to yet another momentous election, it provides a window into our past that offers surprising insights into our present, helping us to understand how aggrievement and “passions” can spin into a kind of madness.
Author photo credit: Nina Subin.
About the author: Erik Larson is the author of six previous national bestsellers: The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm, which collectively have sold more than twelve million copies. His books have been published in nearly forty countries.
Erik Larson will be touring at the time of the book’s publication; click here for more details
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PRAISE FOR THE DEMON OF UNREST:
“Larson, one of today’s pre-eminent nonfiction storytellers, trawls a variety of archives to explore the historically momentous months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the Battle of Fort Sumter—the end of which, in 1861, began the Civil War.”—The New York Times
“Perhaps no other historian has ever rendered the struggle for Sumter in such authoritative detail as Larson does here… Few historians, too, have done a better job of untangling the web of intrigues and counter-intrigues that helped provoke the eventual attack and surrender — how a few slightly different decisions by leaders on both sides could have led to dramatically different outcomes in the secession crisis, ones that might not have involved a war at all.” –The Washington Post
“A feast of historical insight and narrative verve . . . Larson’s great gift is his uncanny ability to spin a chronological story whose ending we already know . . . yet keep the narrative as crisp and suspenseful as an Anthony Horowitz suspense novel. . . . This is Erik Larson at his best, enlivening even a thrice-told tale into an irresistible thriller.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Even diehard Civil War aficionados will learn from [this book] . . . . A riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult.”—Los Angeles Times
“The Demon of Unrest [is] a masterclass in reportage and storytelling.”—Garden and Gun
“Abraham Lincoln devotees and Larson fans alike will devour this propulsive account . . . An all-too-prescient tale of tension and tragedy, clashing egos, miscommunication, power, and betrayal.”—People
“Engagingly written and fraught with tension . . . The Demon of Unrest will add to Larson’s luster as one of the great historical-nonfiction writers of our time. . . . [A] literary masterwork.”— National Review