Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
Candice Millard’s books- on Churchill in the Boer War, on Theodore Roosevelt’s exploration of the Amazon River, and on the Richard Burton and John Speke expedition to find the source of the Nile are all splendid, informative, and well written. This book on James Garfield the 20th president of the United States who served from March 4, 1881 until his death on September 19, 1881 , two months after he was shot by an assassin is no exception. rsk
James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation’s corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield’s inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but become the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic brings alive a forgotten chapter of U.S. history.
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