Author Erik Larson provided background information about what was going on in the Northern and Southern states when Abraham Lincoln was elected and the civil war that was “about” to get started.

I, frankly, had no idea that Lincoln was so unpopular in the South that assassination talk was everywhere, and he came to his inauguration secretly.

I also did not know how much slavery meant to the South. We learn all this through diaries and historical texts accessed by the author–so much so that his bibliography at the end of the book goes from page 499 to 567.

With all the research, Larson has also written a sort of “who done it” in terms of the slow movement toward war. We keep reading to find out what happens next, though in essence we do know what happened. I loved reading this book.

Here’s an excerpt about remarks to Congress that were typical of the times:

“In the midst of the controversy over abolitionist mail, Hammond, on February 1, 1836, delivered the first unabashedly proslavery speech Congress had ever heard. Newly turned twenty-eight, he stood in jarring contrast to the veteran legislators doddering about the floor. Slavery, he assured his audience, was anything but evil. “On the contrary, I believe it to be the greatest of all the great blessings which a kind Providence has bestowed upon our favored region. Only the abolitionists with their ‘mad and fatal schemes’ demanded emancipation,” he argued. “As a class, I say it boldly, there is not a happier more contented race upon the face of the earth than our slaves.”

And then came war. If you love American history, you will love to learn what is in this book.