Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (September 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385526261
ISBN-13: 978-0385526265
Genre :Biographies & Memoirs, History
Description
James A. 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, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.
But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil. The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect. As his condition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.
Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.
Editorial ReviewsMeticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.
"Fascinating......Gripping.....Stunning....has a much bigger scope than the events surrounding Garfield’s slow, lingering death. It is the haunting tale of how a man who never meant to seek the presidency found himself swept into the White House. . . . Ms. Millard shows the Garfield legacy to be much more important than most of her readers knew it to be." --The New York Times
“Sparklingly alive…[Millard] brings to life a moment in the nation’s history when access to the president was easy, politics bitter, and medical knowledge slight. Under Millard’s pen, it’s hard to imagine its being better told.” --Publishers Weekly
“Sparklingly alive…[Millard] brings to life a moment in the nation’s history when access to the president was easy, politics bitter, and medical knowledge slight. Under Millard’s pen, it’s hard to imagine its being better told.” --Publishers Weekly
Praise
“Historian Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic is first-rate history, political intrigue, and a true-crime story all rolled into one. Millard is masterful at capturing the zeitgeist of America during the 1880s, when President James Garfield was assassinated. An epic must-read!”
—Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior
“In this brilliant and riveting work, Candice Millard demonstrates the power of narrative nonfiction. Through exhaustive research and flawless storytelling, she has brought to life one of the most harrowing and fascinating sagas in American history—a saga filled with political intrigue, a mad assassin, and a frantic scientific struggle to save the life of a noble president. This is a book that is impossible to put down.”
—David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
“Historian Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic is first-rate history, political intrigue, and a true-crime story all rolled into one. Millard is masterful at capturing the zeitgeist of America during the 1880s, when President James Garfield was assassinated. An epic must-read!”
—Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior
“In this brilliant and riveting work, Candice Millard demonstrates the power of narrative nonfiction. Through exhaustive research and flawless storytelling, she has brought to life one of the most harrowing and fascinating sagas in American history—a saga filled with political intrigue, a mad assassin, and a frantic scientific struggle to save the life of a noble president. This is a book that is impossible to put down.”
—David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
“Candice Millard has done it again: She’s turned the sometimes stodgy realm of presidential history on its head with a gripping tale of high danger and stoic endurance, a tale that had nearly completely vanished from public memory. What an exceptional man and what an exciting era Millard has brought to elegant life on the page! After reading Destiny of the Republic, you’ll never think of James A. Garfield as a ‘minor’ president again—and you’ll despise anew our national penchant for hatching madmen who snuff out greatness in its prime.” —Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail
“In President Garfield’s assassination, Candice Millard has rediscovered one of the great forgotten stories in American history. Millard has turned Garfield’s story into a crackling tale of suspense and a panoramic picture of a fascinating but forgotten era. If you enjoy reading about Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, you will find this book riveting.”
—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America
“As she did in The River of Doubt, Candice Millard has written another riveting narrative, this time about a long-neglected but remarkable president, James A. Garfield, who was shot by a deranged office seeker just a few weeks after he assumed the presidency. What happens next is detailed in the accomplished book. Just as Millard put us deep in the Amazon with Teddy Roosevelt, she has skillfully allowed us to share this traumatic moment.” —Ken Burns
Reader's Review
E. Budvis (Caifornia, USA)
"Destiny" is a superbly written, fast-paced book that provides an interesting insight to a forgotten piece of American history. It provides enough information to evoke the time and place of events and accurately depict what happened, without becoming bogged done in unnecessary detail. "Destiny" would be a perfect book for a long plane trip.
In "Destiny" you'll read about the insanity of the assassin Charles Guiteau. If you're familair with American assassins, you'll recognize elements of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, Mark David Chapman, and John Hinkley. His delusions of grandeur cause him to achieve some level of infamy even before the murder. He then caps his wretched career by the assassination for reasons that rank with shooting the President to impress Jody Foster.
The other antagonist is the medical establishment epitomized by Garfield's treating physician, Dr. Bliss. Bliss and the American medical establishment rejected the Dr. Lister's work on antiseptic surgery practices because the were unwilling to examine their ideas. That arrogance/ignorance cost Garfield his life.
Finally, I'm fairly sure that this is first time many of us are introduced to President Garfield in depth. That's a shame. Most of us just know him as one of the other two Presidents who were assassinated or one of those interchangeable late 19th century bearded Presidents. It turns out, however, that although he was adamant about civil rights, he was also respected in the South. Could decades of civil rights struggles have been avoided and resolved more peacfully? We'll never know. That makes Garfield's assassination a tragedy for America, just as much as it was for his family that loved this great man
“In President Garfield’s assassination, Candice Millard has rediscovered one of the great forgotten stories in American history. Millard has turned Garfield’s story into a crackling tale of suspense and a panoramic picture of a fascinating but forgotten era. If you enjoy reading about Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, you will find this book riveting.”
—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America
“As she did in The River of Doubt, Candice Millard has written another riveting narrative, this time about a long-neglected but remarkable president, James A. Garfield, who was shot by a deranged office seeker just a few weeks after he assumed the presidency. What happens next is detailed in the accomplished book. Just as Millard put us deep in the Amazon with Teddy Roosevelt, she has skillfully allowed us to share this traumatic moment.” —Ken Burns
Reader's Review
E. Budvis (Caifornia, USA)
"Destiny" is a superbly written, fast-paced book that provides an interesting insight to a forgotten piece of American history. It provides enough information to evoke the time and place of events and accurately depict what happened, without becoming bogged done in unnecessary detail. "Destiny" would be a perfect book for a long plane trip.
In "Destiny" you'll read about the insanity of the assassin Charles Guiteau. If you're familair with American assassins, you'll recognize elements of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, Mark David Chapman, and John Hinkley. His delusions of grandeur cause him to achieve some level of infamy even before the murder. He then caps his wretched career by the assassination for reasons that rank with shooting the President to impress Jody Foster.
The other antagonist is the medical establishment epitomized by Garfield's treating physician, Dr. Bliss. Bliss and the American medical establishment rejected the Dr. Lister's work on antiseptic surgery practices because the were unwilling to examine their ideas. That arrogance/ignorance cost Garfield his life.
Finally, I'm fairly sure that this is first time many of us are introduced to President Garfield in depth. That's a shame. Most of us just know him as one of the other two Presidents who were assassinated or one of those interchangeable late 19th century bearded Presidents. It turns out, however, that although he was adamant about civil rights, he was also respected in the South. Could decades of civil rights struggles have been avoided and resolved more peacfully? We'll never know. That makes Garfield's assassination a tragedy for America, just as much as it was for his family that loved this great man
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