Just finished Erik Larson's latest masterpiece and wow—this isn't your grandpa's Civil War history book. The way he zooms in on those chaotic six months between Lincoln's election and Fort Sumter feels like binge-watching a high-stakes political thriller.

Major Anderson is the unexpected MVP here—a Southern-born Union loyalist stuck holding the bag (or rather, the fort) while Washington ghosted him. The diary excerpts of his dwindling supplies and 'uhh guys... any orders??' messages had me stressed like it was 1861.

Funniest/saddest detail? Lincoln getting roasted by a British journalist for looking 'helplessly adrift' while Southern firebrands like Edmund Ruffin (basically a 19th century Twitter troll with a cannon fetish) were out there meme-ing secession into reality.

400 pages flew by—Larson makes you smell the gunpowder at Sumter and feel the existential dread of that electoral vote count (January 6th parallels? Yikes). Only gripe: needed more Mary Chestnut sass. Still, required reading before November 2024 unless we wanna reenact this mess.