4.44

5

Oct 21, 2011

In recent years I've been attracted to books about obscure presidents. When I read about the Candice Millard book on James Garfield I was instantly intrigued. I mean no one knows much of anything about Garfield including myself. He is easy to pass over because he barely survived 6 months into his term as president and a good portion of that time he was fighting for his life. The only time his name is brought up in conversation is when someone is struggling to remember the names of the four In recent years I've been attracted to books about obscure presidents. When I read about the Candice Millard book on James Garfield I was instantly intrigued. I mean no one knows much of anything about Garfield including myself. He is easy to pass over because he barely survived 6 months into his term as president and a good portion of that time he was fighting for his life. The only time his name is brought up in conversation is when someone is struggling to remember the names of the four assassinated presidents.


James A. Garfield

Garfield is a self made man, a true American success story. He grew up on a modest farm in Ohio with his brothers and his mother. He loved books and was a life time reader of literature scoring big points with me and certainly moving up in my esteem. He worked as a carpenter at college to pay for his tuition. Everything he seemed to turn his hand to he showed above average aptitude including strategy in war time during the nations civil struggle, and in peace time as a president trying to heal the divides in his own party.

Garfield's rise to the nomination in the 1880 Republican convention was not only improbable, but would have been a ludicrous thought for Garfield as well. He had no intention of seeking the nomination; in fact, he went to the convention to give the nomination speech for John Sherman, brother to General William Tecumseh Sherman. At the end of the speech instead of hearing chants for Sherman he heard chants for Garfield. In the first balloting Grant is leading by a healthy margin with Garfield only receiving a single vote. As the voting continues Garfield steadily gains a handful of votes on each round until it becomes obvious to everyone that he is the bipartisan candidate and a flood of votes go to him.


Guiteau thought he deserved an office for his fervent (demented) support of the election of President Garfield.

Charles J. Guiteau, to put it mildly was deranged, and history should have passed without anyone knowing his name, but for the singular moment when he was able to borrow the money from an acquaintance, go down to the local shop, and purchase a handgun for the purpose of shooting the president of the United States. The Secret Service, at this time in history, was used primarily to investigate counterfeit money. The American public felt it was too much like royalty for a President to be guarded. They felt he should be accessible to the public. Guiteau shot Garfield twice once in the arm and once in the back in the middle of a train station. After 80 days of battling for his life Garfield died not from the assassin's bullets, but from the abysmal care of his doctors. He died from an infection he acquired from his doctors poking their unsterilized fingers and equipment into his wounds.


Alexander Graham Bell

When Alexander Graham Bell discovered that doctors were searching for the bullet that entered Garfield's back he thought there should be a way to find the bullet without probing for it. He invented what he called an induction machine which is basically a precursor to the Geiger counter. Doctor Bliss, the self-appointed lead doctor on the Garfield case, insisted the bullet was on the right side and would only allow Bell to scan the body on that side. If Bell had been allowed to do a full scan they would have found that the bullet was on the left side and possibly would have given Garfield a chance at life. Bell regretted for the rest of his life that he didn't insist that the machine be passed over the left side as well.


Candice Millard

This is such a well researched book, copiously notated and indexed. The writing style is free and easy and the chapters laid out in such a compelling fashion that I actually found myself rooting for Garfield to live even though I knew the outcome. I was also cheering for Bell, who was frantically trying to do his part to save the president. I certainly came away with a heightened respect for several people including Bell who was not only a great inventor, but a wonderful humanitarian; Garfield who was a man of vision and integrity; and Candice Millard who is a writer with passion and wonderful insight. I certainly look forward to reading her next foray into history.

Will Byrnes wrote an excellent review of this book as well. It is not to be missed. Here is the link to his review: Byrnes Garfield review

Scott Miller wrote a book about the McKinley assassination that works great as a companion read to the Candice Millard book. My review is here: My McKinley Review

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten ...more

5

Feb 22, 2012

If most people were to be asked today what they thought of Garfield, they would most likely offer an answer about a cartoon cat, and not the 20th president of the United States, the president who served only 200 days in office, the second president to be assassinated, and one of our great losses as a nation.


Image from Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Candice Millard, the author of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, here follows the paths of two men, the ill-fated If most people were to be asked today what they thought of Garfield, they would most likely offer an answer about a cartoon cat, and not the 20th president of the United States, the president who served only 200 days in office, the second president to be assassinated, and one of our great losses as a nation.


Image from Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Candice Millard, the author of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, here follows the paths of two men, the ill-fated president, James A Garfield, and the man who would see to his end, Charles Guiteau.

No political conspiracies were involved, at least not outside the delusions of an addled mind. While the assassin did have political views they were likelier to be the same as those of his target than anywhere in opposition. No, he was your basic nutter, who convinced himself that God wanted him to take out the president. While clearly disturbed, Guiteau had an interesting past. His mother died when he was 7 and he was raised by his father, a religious fanatic, and follower of John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the utopian Oneida commune in upstate New York. This cultish group favored free love, which they called “complex marriage,” among other things. Charles did not have a lot of success with the ladies, even at Oneida, which must have really stung. They practiced a form of self (really group) criticism that would gain favor with a later communal program, Mao Te Tung’s. Although the commune promised the pleasures of complex marriage, to Guiteau’s frustration, “The Community women,” one of Oneida’s members would later admit, “did not extend love and confidence toward him.” In fact, so thorough was his rejection among women that they nicknamed him “Charles Gitout.” He bitterly complained that, while at the commune, he was “practically a Shaker.” He worked as a lawyer (which at the time did not require a law degree) and a preacher and had a rather permanent and cavalier attitude toward paying his bills. I guess in that way he was a harbinger of Republicans of a later era. Guiteau was in DC seeking a political appointment from the president, just compensation, in his mind, for the assistance he had given to the campaign. He had suffered delusions of grandeur for a long time. His own family had sought to have him put away. But the slippery bastard fled before they could complete his committal.

Garfield’s was a classic American success story. His parents were farmers, working land-grant turf. But dad passed away when James was still a boy. Through hard work and recognition of his native brilliance by enough people who had the means to help, Garfield managed to get an excellent education. His oratorical skills were state of the art for his time. He was elected to the state legislature and soon thereafter put into the national Congress, with hardly any effort at all on his part. This accidental president never sought that office either. In fact, he attended the 1880 Republican convention to give the nominating speech for his fellow Ohioan, John Sherman. But after dozens of ballots, with no hope of any of the major candidates winning enough votes to get the nomination, delegates began looking for an alternative. And thus was James A Garfield nominated for president by his party.

Speaking of which, the Republican Party of 1880 was rather different from the GOP of today. Garfield had been anti-slavery, as had his party. For freed slaves, an impoverished and, until recently, almost entirely powerless segment of the population, Garfield represented freedom and progress, but also, and perhaps more importantly, dignity. As president, he demanded for black men nothing less than what they wanted desperately for themselves—complete and unconditional equality, born not of regret but respect.Today’s party could probably be counted on to insist that property rights trump all and turn away any attempt to get rid of such a peculiar institution. So Garfield was a pretty good guy, remarkably, considering that the Civil War had ended less than 16 years prior, acceptable to both the South and the North, a brilliant, Renaissance man.

Millard offers not only a window into the personal and political history of Garfield, a literal log-cabin Republican, we also get a look at the time. One element is further confirmation re what a fetid swamp DC was (well, it remains a fetid swamp these days, but for other reasons), a place where rats roamed at will (view spoiler)[but if I step out of the way, they seem happy to dash past. (hide spoiler)] in the White House, (yes, yes, I know, sometimes they are just so easy that even I, who know no shame, have to pass, but you are free to select the party you dislike and fill in the blanks) and clouds of mosquitoes blotted out the sun. Ok, that last may be a slight exaggeration, but the gist remains. It was a biologically unhealthy place. The toxicity of DC and the White House in particular figures rather largely into the story of how James A Garfield met his end.

In addition to the intersecting lines of Garfield and Guiteau, a little extra attention is directed toward a young Scottish inventor, a fellow whose chief concern was helping the hearing impaired. He had, not long before, brought to market a remarkable new device. This made for an interesting time for him. Once the world realized just what he had created, thieves, swindlers and worst of all, lawyers, came after him like a wolf pack on the trail of an injured deer. How much time must one dedicate to defending oneself in court in order to retain control of that which you, yourself created? Lots, and it was making him miserable. Still, he had a thing for inventing. When he heard of the attack on Garfield he hastened to his lab to work on a device that would, hopefully, locate the bullet inside the president’s body, without having to open him up first, a sort of early metal detector. We speak, of course, of Alexander Graham Bell, a young man still. His efforts merit considerable attention and entail a lot of drama. Actually, considering that we are all well aware of the outcome, it is rather remarkable how much dramatic tension there is in this non-fiction account.

We get a look at the medical sorts who dove in when the president was shot, some reasonable, and some determined to place their own interests above the health of Garfield. We get to see yet another example of the arrogance of power leading to a dark end when it chooses to ignore scientific advances in the fact-based world. And we get to see some of the places where the leading edge of medical thought and technology were struggling for recognition. Joseph Lister had revolutionized European medical practices with his insistence on antiseptic environments for medical care. But those who insisted on local exceptionalism preferred to leave their patient in environments we would probably describe today as filthy, and saw nothing wrong with poking their fingers into open wounds. Garfield, ultimately, suffered an iatrogenic death. The bullets did not kill him. His doctors did. Sadly medical care is the third leading cause of death in the USA today, so some things have not changed all that much.

Re government, Millard fills us in on some of the political game-playing of the time, and how it was used to generate governmental stasis. There is much here that resonates, and that reminds us how far we have come in some ways, and how little we have grown in others. I contemplated making a table showing 1880 vs 2013, and doing the comparison (and contrast) more graphically, but I will leave that for other reviewers. I merely note that such a list could indeed be constructed.

One interesting point made here is that both Guiteau and Garfield felt themselves to have been touched by God. Both had faced death while aboard ships and both felt that they had been spared by the Almighty for some greater purpose. It seems unlikely that they were both right.

History books need not be dull. The best give us a sense of a time and a place, let us see some of the personalities afoot in that world, look into how things came to be the way they were and how events of that time have echoed down to us today. A good popular history book makes us stop, rub our chins and mutter to no one in particular, “I did not know that.” On all counts, Candice Millard has succeeded. While the subject is not exactly laugh-riot material, if you love to learn, it will make you smile. It has made others smile as well. Destiny was awarded a PEN award for research nonfiction, and an Edgar Award for best Fact Crime book of 2011.

And it is quite filling. If you are of a cartoonish persuasion, you might even think of it as lasagna for the brain.

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

For another consideration of this book, you could do worse than to check out Jeffrey Keeten’s excellent review ...more

5

Jun 08, 2017

I'm excited that I'm excited!!!! Does this make sense?? Have you ever been excited that you are REALLY EXCITED???

In a VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME I've read books about 3 American Past Presidents....

I'm pleased to say.... just like the positive late bloomer reader experience WHEN A LIGHT SWITCH WENT OFF ....and I knew I'd be reading for the rest of my life.....
I TURNED A HUGE CORNER AGAIN JUST IN THIS WEEK. I'm now 'clear' -- I have nothing to fear - or reasons to resist reading about past I'm excited that I'm excited!!!! Does this make sense?? Have you ever been excited that you are REALLY EXCITED???

In a VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME I've read books about 3 American Past Presidents....

I'm pleased to say.... just like the positive late bloomer reader experience WHEN A LIGHT SWITCH WENT OFF ....and I knew I'd be reading for the rest of my life.....
I TURNED A HUGE CORNER AGAIN JUST IN THIS WEEK. I'm now 'clear' -- I have nothing to fear - or reasons to resist reading about past Presidents..... or U.S history-or other biographical stories. If the 'author' is terrific- research is terrific- THESE BOOKS WILL be 'as good'... if not better as ANY FICTION STORY!!
It's no 'accident' that 3 books in a row about Past Presidents of the United States have been juicy enjoyable 'true' stories!

Author Candice Millard meets author Taylor Jenkins Reid in "Destiny of The Republic:
A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President". NO KIDDING!!!

For all my 'female' friends who think they wouldn't touch this book --the book cover looks 'dry' - brown - and frightening boring????
-- I PROMISE the readers who enjoyed listening to the audiobook of "One True Loves" or "After I Do"......that if you give this audiobook a chance....( nobody was more afraid than I was)....that 'very soon' into this audiobook you'll be HOOKED .... in the SAME WAY HOOKED as you've been with TJR. The only difference-- is a part of you 'will' be proud of yourself -- for stepping outside of your comfort zone. Guess what??? PRESIDENTS ARE ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS TOO!!!

I was telling a friend -- I got SO EXCITED at one point during this book - walking &
listening.... that I literally cheered out loud to the trees on the trail I was hiking.

.....James A. Garfield was our 20th President
.....He was born in NE Ohio.... Born into poverty.
.....OMG... we hear THE BEST survivor story about Garfield with he - a rope - and water! It's sooooo good -- I WONT SPOIL IT.... ( it's toward the beginning of the this book)
.....Garfield went to College with the $17 his mother had saved for him. 17 dollars!!!!!!
.....An excellent student -- ( oh I believe he had a reason for wanting to be the very best scholar he could be).....he was asked to TEACH CLASSES AT his University 'while' he was still an undergraduate student. Garfield loved to read and learn about 'everything'.
......Garfield became a University Professor
.....While giving a speech at the Republican Convention in 1880... endorsing candidate
John Sherman, his speech was so powerful - so real - that all the people in the room started yelling 'Garfield's' name. CHANTING grew LOUDER.... "Garfield, Garfield"!!!
......Readers - audiobooks listeners will be ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEATS through what happens next ---- shaking your heads -- it's UNBELIEVABLE the way James Garfield 'wins' the Presidency. I ONLY WISH THIS HAPPENED in 2017!!!!
James Garfield said: "I never had Presidential Fever, even for a day"!!!!!!!!
.....A humble man - a man with so much integrity- my body ached at how much I love
WHO Garfield WAS AND ALL THAT HE STOOD FOR.
I realized how MUCH my insides ARE CRYING for this type of leadership in our country.
Is it any wonder that I'm reaching for books like this right now??? I'm wanting to believe in the probability and possibility of goodness, honestly, honor, justice, service for the greater needs of others... I DONT WANT TO BELIEVE THIS WAS THE END OF AN ERA!!!
.....I found the story about Garfield and his wife Lucretia fascinating. The first five years of their marriage they only spent five months together. The truth about the troubles in the early years of marriage was so raw and personal -- it made me believe every single thing in this book because it was at this moment I realize nothing is being hidden. AGAIN.... I'll say....FOR READERS WHO LIKE TO READ ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS- and MARRIAGE.... it's all right here. As valuable as any fiction story!!!!

.....as we dive deeper into the book --- it becomes very clear why the title includes the words madness, medicine, and murder of a President. SUCH A TRAGIC TALE!!!!!
...... Garfield was an ethical guy. He was willing to work where he was needed. He was considered a rational man that would call himself a radical when it came to civil rights. He was the only President ever to deliver a speech not in English. He was a staunch ally of the newly freed black population.
.....AND THEN SOME FRICKEN CRAZY GUY....Charles Guiteau shot a couple of bullets.
The first shot went into Garfield's arm. The second went into his back and broke two ribs. Garfield did not die right away.
Alexander Graham Bell tried to save him. He was already famous at age 34 for already having invented the telephone. He had been trying to create a machine that would be find the bullet inside the president.

However, Garfield was being treated by another doctor: Dr. Bliss. There was nothing blissful about Dr. Bliss. When you hear the story it makes your stomach turn when you realize that this doctor put his dirty fingers, unwashed hands, and unsterilized instruments deep into Garfield's wounds. Joseph Lister and other scientists had already proved that infections were caused by germs and could be prevented by antiseptic practices. Basically, Garfield died from malpractice---however a jury convicted Guiteau guilty anyway.


PARTS OF THIS STORY STAND OUT TO ME:
1. The way James A. Garfield 'became' President. What's the likelihood that the exact same situation that happened back in 1880 could happen like that today?
2. A smaller part of this story was the relationship - beginning dating days - early marriage - later years of marriage ... with Lucretia were interesting to me.
3. The ROPE STORY is AWESOME!!!!
4. FEMALE -- author Candice Millard..... I think she's kinda inspiring!!!!
5. I look at the cover of this book with TRANSFORMED eyes. I see nothing but the most beautiful man: James Garfield. Oh.... and how I enjoyed reading about when you would belly-laugh .... rolling on the floor at times. Your wife thought you were a fruitcake.... YOU WERE A MAN 'the people' loved!!! Men and women loved you.... for all the right reasons!!!!! I'm sad your life ended too soon!!!


Thank you to ALL THE MANY FRIENDS WHO TOLD ME TO READ THIS BOOK! I had No idea I would ENJOY IT THIS MUCH!!!!!!
This was the GREATEST HOMEWORK - book - recommendation!!!! ---haha!!! Never felt like homework!!!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!! >>> TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!! ...more

5

Dec 24, 2011

If you're like me, I'll bet you haven't given President James Garfield much thought either. Have you? Come on, admit it. He was elected in 1880, shot in 1881 and gone in months, and suddenly it was all Chester Arthur, all the time. But here's a book that manages to make mountains out of this molehill of a Presidency. First, the author persuades us that Garfield was a truly likable, magnetic, wonderful human being. Honest, thrifty, salt-of-the-earth, up from the farm, a true man of the people in If you're like me, I'll bet you haven't given President James Garfield much thought either. Have you? Come on, admit it. He was elected in 1880, shot in 1881 and gone in months, and suddenly it was all Chester Arthur, all the time. But here's a book that manages to make mountains out of this molehill of a Presidency. First, the author persuades us that Garfield was a truly likable, magnetic, wonderful human being. Honest, thrifty, salt-of-the-earth, up from the farm, a true man of the people in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, a scholar and a gentleman, respectful and progressive in his attitudes toward blacks, magnanimous toward his enemies, he did not seek power, but found it thrust upon him, and had he lived, the case is made, might have been a truly great President. So that's for starters.

Then to spice it up a bit we learn that on his behalf, as he lay dying in the Washington summer heat, air conditioning was invented and deployed for the first time in history. For Garfield! They invented it so he would be comfortable, thus making, I don't know, the whole modern world possible, probably.

Then, on his behalf, Alexander Graham Bell labored through the nights to invent a metal detector to find the bullet in his body. His efforts failed, but not because his device did not work, but rather because the physician would not allow him to inspect the left side of the body (where the bullet actually lay), insisting that he confine his metal detection to the side that the physician, Dr. Bliss, believed to be its location.

Furthermore, while Dr. Bliss, the imperious surgeon who claimed full responsibility for his care and probably killed him with his dirty fingers as he probed inside his abdomen, insisted that modern ideas of sterilization were nonsense, nonetheless out in the country and in Europe physicians were imploring the White House doctor to adhere to the ideas of Lister and sterilize instruments and hands. They were unsuccessful, but following Garfield's death their ideas gained a foothold.

We are treated along the way to some gloriously gruesome descriptions of anesthetic free 19th century surgery procedures, and copious amounts of puss and bodily fluids. You can skip that part if you like, but if you want to really smell the 19th century, it's worth a read too.

The story of his assassin, Charles Guiteau meanwhile provides a great picture of a 19th century low-life and more or less insane person, not just during those few months, but as recreated here, over much of his life. Millard is a good story teller, weaving together historical documents and her conversations with historians into a compelling narrative that makes us want to turn the page.

Finally, we have the remarkable story of Vice President Chet Arthur, a true nothing and political factotum, an errand boy to the egotistical Senator Roscoe Conkling, who mysteriously found the strength to kick his patron, Conkling, out of his life upon assuming the Presidency (earning Conkling's eternal enmity), and to begin the process of creating a civil service in the United States.

All of this happened in 1880 and 1881 (and in the 3 years that followed with Arthur), and is great fun to learn about. ...more

4

Sep 26, 2016

“When [President James] Garfield walked in, [Charles] Guiteau was standing right behind him. This, Guiteau realized, was his chance to kill the president, and this time he was not about to let it slip away. Without a moment’s hesitation, he raised the revolver he had been carrying with him for nearly a month and pointed it at Garfield’s back. So complete was his composure that he might have been standing at the edge of the Potomac aiming at a sapling, instead of in a crowded train station about “When [President James] Garfield walked in, [Charles] Guiteau was standing right behind him. This, Guiteau realized, was his chance to kill the president, and this time he was not about to let it slip away. Without a moment’s hesitation, he raised the revolver he had been carrying with him for nearly a month and pointed it at Garfield’s back. So complete was his composure that he might have been standing at the edge of the Potomac aiming at a sapling, instead of in a crowded train station about to shoot the president of the United States…”
- Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President


History has not done much to remember the 20th President of the United States. Perhaps it was because James A. Garfield was shot just four months into his term of office. Or maybe it’s because he has the misfortune to share a surname with an orange cartoon cat who loves lasagna and hates Mondays. Whatever the reason, Garfield has been unfairly removed from popular knowledge, and exists mainly as an answer your beer-fogged mind struggles to form during trivia night at the local bar.

Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic does an excellent job with the triple tragedy of Garfield’s life. First, his shooting. Second, his lingering death, as his ignorant butcher-doctors ensured his doom, but only after great suffering. Finally, attempting to remedy the indignity of his disappearance from memory.

Millard tells this story by focusing on four main players. The main player, of course, is Garfield himself. Born into abject poverty, he raised himself by dint of sheer ability. He taught school, fought commendably in the Civil War (achieving the rank of brigadier general), and was a highly respected congressman before emerging as a dark horse Republican presidential candidate in the election of 1880. There was much decency in him, especially as a proponent of black civil rights.


Charles Guiteau: A man with "some derangement of his mental organization," according to John Logan

The villain of the piece is Charles Guiteau, a “writer” and “lawyer” and castoff from John Humphrey Noyes’ Oneida Community, where despite the prevalence of free love, no woman would touch him. Guiteau was hyper religious and delusional, his chief delusion being convinced that newly-elected President Garfield owed him a job as American consul in Paris. When that job was not forthcoming, Guiteau borrowed some money (which he never meant to pay off, as he was notorious for walking away from debts) and purchased a .44 caliber Webley British Bulldog revolver (he opted for the ivory over wooden grip).

On July 2, 1881, Guiteau ambushed Garfield at the Baltimore & Pacific Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. The assassin fired two shots at point blank range, one of which entered Garfield’s back and lodged behind his pancreas. He was soon attended to by doctors, who shoved their dirty fingers to probe the wound. Unfortunately, they determined that the bullet had come to rest near his liver. These kinds of mistakes are known to occur when doctors create bullet tracks with inexpert probing.


Guiteau's ambush of Garfield

Thus enters the third major character of this saga, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss. No, that name is not a typo, or a castoff joke from Airplane. Dr. Bliss’ first name was Doctor. This, I suppose, is what we call aspirational naming. Dr. Bliss took over Garfield’s care with a tyrannical authority. In and of itself, this might not have been a terrible occurrence. But Dr. Bliss had two things working against him. He was often wrong, and he was too conceited and arrogant to allow for that possibility. Right up until Garfield gasped his last, Dr. Bliss was telling everyone who’d listen that the President was going to be fine.

At the periphery of this story, Millard follows Alexander Graham Bell. Famed as the inventor of the telephone, Bell worked furiously to invent a metal detector to find the bullet buried in Garfield’s body. He came up with a working device, but was unable to find the precise location. Only an autopsy revealed that the doctors – directed by Bliss – had been looking in the wrong place all along.

Millard is a fantastic historian and writer. Her books are well-researched and filled with memorable details. Her prose is graceful and she is a natural storyteller. At just 300 pages of text, this is a short book that I finished in only a couple reads.


The fatal weapon

Millard is aiming for a broad audience and she gets right to the point in her judgments. She is not afraid to draw conclusions. This makes for an effortless, entertaining read, with a certain amount of attitude. However, there is a tradeoff in that Millard’s declamations come at a loss of some nuance. There is altogether more telling than showing.

On the whole, I do not disagree that Garfield was a good man with the potential for greatness within him. Yet Millard’s portrait is so strikingly positive that it doesn’t ring entirely true. When she mentions, almost offhand, that Garfield cheated on his hopelessly devoted wife Lucretia, it sort of jolted me in an I was not expecting that sort of way. In that same vein, I hesitate as to how much weight to put into Millard’s flattering portrayal of Garfield’s relationship to black America. His views on racial equality sound almost too good to be true for a 19th American. Of course, I say this without evidence. Everything I knew about Garfield coming into this book can be encapsulated in three sentences. (1) Fought in the Civil War. (2) Murdered at a train station. (3) Separate and distinct from the cat.

Millard has several different threads woven around the central storyline of Garfield’s assassination. One of the big ones is a withering critique of the state of American medicine in the 1880s. She introduces Joseph Lister, a pioneering British physician who developed effective sterilization techniques to avoid infection following surgery. Lister’s methods were widely ignored if not outright mocked by many in the American medical establishment. Had they been employed on Garfield, it is likely he would have survived, since Guiteau’s bullet did not nick any arteries or puncture any organs. Indeed, Garfield likely would’ve survived had he simply been left alone entirely. (As I noted above, I don’t know much about Garfield. However, I’ve read a bit more on American medical history, and Millard’s take squares with what I’ve seen presented elsewhere, such as in John Barry’s Spanish Flu epic, The Great Influenza).


The mind of a murderer. Literally. A jar containing the remains of Guiteau's brain

Another major subplot is the spoils system of government. At the time of Garfield’s unlikely ascendancy, many important government posts were filled by the patronage system. Men who were loyal to the president of the winning party were given plum posts – such as customs collector – for which they received tidy salaries. We think of politics today as corrupt, but that doesn’t even begin to describe the spoils system. Garfield’s death was widely seen as the consequence of this system, since Guiteau – aside from being mentally deranged – was a jilted office-seeker. To the surprise of all, Chester A. Arthur, former bagman to spoils-don Roscoe Conklin, seized the emotional moment of his predecessor’s death to get a civil service bill passed into law.

The major downside to Destiny of the Republic is its length. The brevity is wonderful in the sense that it leaves you wanting more. At the same time, it leaves you wanting more. I wanted more amplification on Garfield’s rise from Ohio congressman to presidential candidate (Millard makes it seem like he made one humble speech and nabbed it). I wanted Guiteau’s trial, conviction, and execution given more space to breathe. (It feels rushed). I wanted – well, you get the picture. It’s been said a good book can never be too long, and that’s definitely the case here.

Destiny of the Republic left me bereft. I mourned, relatively speaking, the loss of James Abram Garfield, a man to whom I’d never before given more than two thoughts. It’s hard to say whether he would have been a great president, since greatness is not only in rising to the occasion, but having an occasion to rise to. But we will never know, and that’s the hard thing. He was certainly a man of exceptional promise, cut down before that promise fully revealed itself. ...more

5

Nov 06, 2015

"There would come a time when the story of James Garfield's early life would be widely admired. Throughout the nation and around the world, his extraordinary rise from fatherlessness and abject poverty would make him the embodiment of the American dream."

This is an outstanding biography of the 20th President of the United States, one whom I admittedly knew very little about previously. James A. Garfield has left such an estimable impression on me after reading this comprehensively researched "There would come a time when the story of James Garfield's early life would be widely admired. Throughout the nation and around the world, his extraordinary rise from fatherlessness and abject poverty would make him the embodiment of the American dream."

This is an outstanding biography of the 20th President of the United States, one whom I admittedly knew very little about previously. James A. Garfield has left such an estimable impression on me after reading this comprehensively researched book by Candice Millard. Having completed only four months of his term before being shot by a madman, Garfield was not able to serve this nation to the great potential he would undoubtedly have done if events had not taken such a drastic turn in his life.

Born into extreme poverty, James Garfield's story is quite remarkable. A brilliant man, he applied himself rigorously and went from working as janitor while attending Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Ohio to serving as assistant professor by his second year. After graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts, he would later become president of the Eclectic Institute by the age of twenty-six. He quickly achieved the rank of major general during the Civil War and later went on to serve in the House of Representatives. Without ever seeking a nomination, Garfield suddenly found himself running in the presidential election and winning by a narrow margin.

A family man and a scholar, Garfield was perhaps pushed from those things he was most passionate about into the throes of politics and what he called "intellectual dissipation." However, always a fighter and possessing a drive not due to ambition but a desire to improve and reform, Garfield rose to the occasion in his new position. Unfortunately, there was one who felt his own fame inevitably linked to that of the president's. Charles Guiteau, religious fanatic and sociopath, would seek a political appointment he felt was his due. When denied what he felt was his right, Guiteau would then take matters into his own hands with the excuse of "divine inspiration", and rid the Americans of this president who he claimed was a "danger to his party and his country".

What occurs next is a shocking account of the harmful medical practices that ultimately were more dangerous than the bullet that entered Garfield's back. There were so many factors here that worked for and against the eventual fate of this president. People like Alexander Graham Bell who toiled exhaustively on an invention to determine the location of the bullet, the support of the American people, and the strong body and spirit of the president himself were all favorable components to a successful recovery. However, a team of doctors led by a physician that refused to acknowledge the success of Joseph Lister's antiseptic techniques that were in practice in Europe at this time and had been known for several years prior to this event – this is what eventually led to Garfield's decline.

This book was fascinating – I was actually quite surprised to become so absorbed by the persons and historical details occurring at this critical time following the Civil War in this country. Candice Millard is a skillful researcher and writer; most of the time I almost forgot this was non-fiction. There is perhaps one part of the book that may be a bit dry to readers less interested in the politics of the time, but this is really just a small portion of the entire account. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, medicine and science. There is a plethora of valuable information on these topics to be found within these pages.

5 stars
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4

Mar 22, 2017

This is another fascinating history book from Candice Millard. Destiny of the Republic is about the life of President James Garfield and Charles Guiteau, the deranged man who assassinated him in 1881. There's also great stuff on the history of medicine, including how long it took before American doctors believed in the importance of sterile instruments and in the dangers of infections in wounds.

One of the frustrating side effects of reading a lot of history is realizing how many times that This is another fascinating history book from Candice Millard. Destiny of the Republic is about the life of President James Garfield and Charles Guiteau, the deranged man who assassinated him in 1881. There's also great stuff on the history of medicine, including how long it took before American doctors believed in the importance of sterile instruments and in the dangers of infections in wounds.

One of the frustrating side effects of reading a lot of history is realizing how many times that things should have turned out differently. In this case, James Garfield was a smart, thoughtful, kind and considerate man who worked hard at being a good leader and president. His early death was a great loss for this country. Additionally, had his doctors been more careful about germs and infection, Garfield could have survived the gunshot wound. Argh, the madness of it!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes presidential biographies, stories about lunatics, or details on the history of medicine.

If you're new to Millard's work, I also highly recommend her books Hero of the Empire, which is about a young Winston Churchill, and The River of Doubt, which is about a crazy trip Teddy Roosevelt took down the Amazon. Millard is one of my favorite narrative nonfiction writers working today.

Favorite Quote
"Garfield's shooting had also revealed to the American people how vulnerable they were. In the little more than a century since its inception, the United States had become a powerful and respected country. Yet Americans suddenly realized that they still had no real control over their own fate. Not only could they not prevent a tragedy of such magnitude, they couldn't even anticipate it. The course of their lives could be changed in an instant, by a man who did not even understand what he had done." ...more

5

Feb 16, 2016

Although I am a history buff, I imagine that "Destiny of the Republic" would be a page turner for any reasonable reader. When nonfiction is well done it is nigh on unbeatable and this text easily fits that bill. I had never heard of its author, Candice Millard, before but I will pick up her other book based solely on how much I enjoyed this one. The subject matter of her previous book, "The River of Doubt" does not sound all that interesting to me, but in her capable hands I am sure I will enjoy Although I am a history buff, I imagine that "Destiny of the Republic" would be a page turner for any reasonable reader. When nonfiction is well done it is nigh on unbeatable and this text easily fits that bill. I had never heard of its author, Candice Millard, before but I will pick up her other book based solely on how much I enjoyed this one. The subject matter of her previous book, "The River of Doubt" does not sound all that interesting to me, but in her capable hands I am sure I will enjoy it. What a testament to her skills as a writer and historian.
I knew the basics about President James Garfield, and a little about his assassin, however, Millard's in-depth characterization of Garfield makes me sad for two reasons. One, it seems apparent that America missed out on a possible great presidency due to one's man's mental illness, and second, where are the leaders like James Garfield today?
An especially effective device in the text was starting each chapter with a quote from something Garfield said or wrote. It gives you hints at what a great man he must have been. When you read a book whose ending you know, and still have an emotional response to it then you know the author has done something extraordinary. That was certainly the case with "Destiny of the Republic".
The real magic of this text is how seamlessly Millard weaves the tale of President Garfield with the events of the times, the mental illness of his eventual assassin (Charles Guiteau) the genius of Alexander Graham Bell, and the arrogance of the medical establishment, especially in her depiction of the physician chiefly responsible for Garfield's medical care after he was shot, Dr. D. Willard Bliss. If history has a villain for Garfield's death, his assassin is followed closely by the medical team that cared for Garfield, and their supreme ignorance and arrogance.
"Destiny of the Republic" is important history that is very well rendered. Its style reminded me a lot of books by the pop historian and writer Erik Larson. That is a good thing! I for one cannot wait to read more by this talented writer. Learning something and being entertained is a lovely combination. ...more

5

Feb 02, 2016

What drew me into Destiny of the Republic was a PBS Special that aired not too long ago. We all had a skeletal understanding of the assassination of James A. Garfield. Garfield, unfortunately, became an elusive name in the litany of former presidents. Ah, dear readers, this man was so much more.

In regard to the author, Candice Millard is an exceptional writer. I read her book, The River of Doubt, that depicts the treacherous journey of Teddy Roosevelt as he ventured down the Amazon River. This What drew me into Destiny of the Republic was a PBS Special that aired not too long ago. We all had a skeletal understanding of the assassination of James A. Garfield. Garfield, unfortunately, became an elusive name in the litany of former presidents. Ah, dear readers, this man was so much more.

In regard to the author, Candice Millard is an exceptional writer. I read her book, The River of Doubt, that depicts the treacherous journey of Teddy Roosevelt as he ventured down the Amazon River. This river trip almost did Teddy in. He suffered greatly in the mix of it and in the subsequent aftermath.

In regard to Garfield......A petal that falls from a budding flower hardly diminishes the beauty and the intention of that flower. But a petal that falls from the bloom of history can have an impact and a lasting effect within the course of time and destiny. It is, in my humble opinion, that in 2016 we may have experienced a different America in the years following his presidency if this man had lived.

Garfield came upon the presidency by sheer happenstance. In 1880 he was at a deadlocked Republican Convention to nominate another as a candidate. Instead, his own name was pushed forward. Garfield came from the most humble and poorest background. He didn't own a pair of shoes until he was 4 years old. His brilliant mind pushed him from being a janitor at the university to becoming its president two years later. He even served as a general in the Union Army.

While in Congress, Garfield introduced a resolution to allow blacks to walk freely through the streets of Washington, D.C. without carrying a pass. He asked, "What legislation is necessary to secure equal justice to all loyal persons, without regard to color, at the national capitol?" He gave passionate speeches in support of black suffrage and better treatment of former slaves. Garfield made it clear in his inaugural address that he would not tolerate the discrimination he knew that was taking place in the South. He felt that ignorance was at the root of the problem and it was the sacred duty of the North and South to educate all of its people regardless of color.

But, sadly, Garfield became a victim of ignorance at the hands of the medical community. The mental derangement of his murderer, Charles Guiteau, was swept aside by those who wished not to take an active role in committing him to a mental institution years before. Garfield died, not by the bullet that entered his back that day, but at the very hands of the ignorant doctors who constantly probed for it and introduced deadly sepsis. Garfield suffered in unspeakable ways.

Destiny of the Republic reads much like a novel. I think we can all look back in hindsight to the should haves and could haves that lay heavy at the feet of this great nation of ours. Garfield served only 4 months into his presidency when he was struck down....a life too short, but perhaps, bearing messages still relevant today and into the future.

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5

Jul 08, 2019

5
"Even as he lay dying, Garfield was kind, patient, cheerful, and deeply grateful. When Bliss told him a fund was being raised for [his wife] Lucretia, Garfield was overcome with gratitude. 'What' he said in surprise. Then turning his face to his pillow to hide his emotion he continued, 'How kind and thoughtful. What a generous people.'"

Perhaps like me you know James Garfield only as one of four U.S. presidents assassinated while in office. He was only in the White House four months when the 5★
"Even as he lay dying, Garfield was kind, patient, cheerful, and deeply grateful. When Bliss told him a fund was being raised for [his wife] Lucretia, Garfield was overcome with gratitude. 'What' he said in surprise. Then turning his face to his pillow to hide his emotion he continued, 'How kind and thoughtful. What a generous people.'"

Perhaps like me you know James Garfield only as one of four U.S. presidents assassinated while in office. He was only in the White House four months when the bullet ripped into his body and so never had the opportunity to memorably serve the nation. It took 70+ excruciating days for him to die.
By all accounts he was a great man and our historical record no doubt suffered for his loss and the things he might have accomplished.
Candice Millard has written a compelling narrative which was very enjoyable as an audio book. Full of interesting facts and detail, at one point she even had me choked up; such a political and medical tragedy.
During our tumultuous political times I come away thinking we could really use a leader like President Garfield ASAP. ...more

3

Mar 26, 2013

I learned a lot of facts from this account of the 1881 Garfield assassination, and I was moved by the plight of good people handicapped by the lack modern advances in presidential security and medical care. But I wasn’t enthralled with how the pieces of the book came together or with the limited reflections on the big picture.

I liked the foreshadowing method Millard employed near the beginning with a visit to the 1876 science and technology exposition in Chicago. There we get Lister failing to I learned a lot of facts from this account of the 1881 Garfield assassination, and I was moved by the plight of good people handicapped by the lack modern advances in presidential security and medical care. But I wasn’t enthralled with how the pieces of the book came together or with the limited reflections on the big picture.

I liked the foreshadowing method Millard employed near the beginning with a visit to the 1876 science and technology exposition in Chicago. There we get Lister failing to persuade the backward American medical profession to adopt his methods of antisepsis, and we get a view of Alexander Graham Bell demonstrating the telephone for the first time. The lack of sanitary precautions by the doctors caring for Garfield’s bullet wound led to his slow death by infection over the 80 days of his survival. Bell’s inventive genius gets harnessed in story with intensive efforts to create a metal detector which could pinpoint where the bullet was located in Garfield’s body. But we never get much detail on the efforts of more enlightened doctors to wrest control of the case from the dishonest quack Dr. Bliss who took over the case, and the device invented by Bell proved ineffective and would not have helped with Garfield’s care if it was.

A significant portion of the book is devoted to the life and madness of Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau. Because Garfield’s shooting came in the first months of his presidency, there is little sense of the tragedy and import of an interrupted political agenda as with the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations. All we learn is that Garfield sought to reform the patronage system in the civil service and supported rights for blacks. Because the historical consequences of Garfield death are unclear, the motivations and life trajectory of Guiteau did not fascinate me. The fact that there was virtually no security for the President is an interesting fact that just hangs there. That the Secret Service wasn’t tasked with presidential protection until after McKinley’s assassination 20 years later is another baffling fact. The issue on the insanity defense in Guiteau’s trial did interest me, but all we know is that somehow the jurors were not swayed, and an execution by hanging resulted.

Ultimately, the characters in this history didn’t quite come alive for me, so I wasn’t emotionally engaged at the same level I attain in works by other popular historical writers I love, such as McCullough, Goodwin, Ambrose, and Sides. Still, Millard’s talent in writing, her pacing, weaving of themes, and marshaling of quotes, was impressive, and I look forward to exploring her other work and future books. Her light touch in this book in focusing on highlights serves readers well who are interested in the skeleton of an historical story. Maybe her reticence to jump onto an agenda or take a stand in interpretation makes her a more objective historian than my favored authors, but my pleasure meter is moved more by writers who take a clear stand and go out on a limb in their judgments.
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5

Aug 15, 2012

If a mentally ill person had not been able to get his hands on a gun, the secret service was doing the job that it does today, if doctors didn’t consider the science of antisepsis the way the anti science crowd considers climate change today, Ohio would have had a significant president in James A. Garfield.

I had a long review written here that seemed to have grown out of control. I decided I would let you read the book instead, and you should. In short(er) Mr. Garfield grew up poorer than poor. If a mentally ill person had not been able to get his hands on a gun, the secret service was doing the job that it does today, if doctors didn’t consider the science of antisepsis the way the anti science crowd considers climate change today, Ohio would have had a significant president in James A. Garfield.

I had a long review written here that seemed to have grown out of control. I decided I would let you read the book instead, and you should. In short(er) Mr. Garfield grew up poorer than poor. He rose out of it, went to college then into politics. He was an abolitionist and worked with the Underground Railroad. He was against the secession of the southern states and became an accomplished military man. He was intelligent, kind and empathetic, everyone loved him. He proved the Pythagorean Theorem while in congress just for something to do. He became the president of the United States against his will but accepted this challenge without complaint. He never once campaigned for any of his political positions. Unimaginable today.

A delusional man with a gun walked up to President Garfield at a train station one day and shot him in the back. At that time the president was unguarded so as to be easily accessed by the public. Being guarded seemed to be too” royal” for Americans and they believed their president should be accessible to everyone. This was after the assassination of President Lincoln. What the hell.

Doctors poked and prodded the man’s wounds in the most horrifically unsanitary ways; a germ-aphobe would have crapped themselves, twice. Garfield developed raging infections which is what ultimately killed him after 80 days of torture. During that time he never complained. He died due to medical incompetence, he would have survived if doctors had opened their minds a tad and started using Dr. Listers antisepsis practices which were widely accepted throughout Europe, but no, they denied the science. He would have lived if they did nothing; the doctors killed him as much as the assassin did.

He was a great man; I wonder what would have been different if he had finished his presidency?
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5

Oct 22, 2016

Surprisingly very good audiobook. Who ever knew anything about this president?
Highly recommend for those that like history and politics. Just terrific.

5 out of 5 stars.

4

Aug 31, 2012

This well-written and tragic story has been revised and can now be found in a place of honor at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

4

Dec 16, 2013

Reading the Presidents: POTUS #20 – James Garfield

What a great way to start out my mission to get to know the presidents! Candice Millard does a great job of interweaving the stories of multiple characters (à la Erik Larson in The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America): James Garfield , Charles Guiteau (his assassin), and (to a lesser extent) Alexander Graham Bell. Toss in some history of science/medicine, some solid info on the early days of Reading the Presidents: POTUS #20 – James Garfield

What a great way to start out my mission to get to know the presidents! Candice Millard does a great job of interweaving the stories of multiple characters (à la Erik Larson in The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America): James Garfield , Charles Guiteau (his assassin), and (to a lesser extent) Alexander Graham Bell. Toss in some history of science/medicine, some solid info on the early days of the M'Naghten rule, a few menacing politicians/villains (I was constantly picturing Roscoe Conkling tapping his fingers in an evil pyramid over in the corner), and you've got yourself an entertaining and informative read.


Over the course of this book, I not only became somewhat of a Garfield fan-girl (he had me at his proof of the Pythagorean theorem), but was awestruck by the audacity and outlandishness (and reality of) delusional stalker thinking exemplified by Guiteau. To call it outlandish is not to say it was inaccurate- in fact, it was remarkable just how textbook abnormal/criminal psychology it was. But, that's not to say that I did not find it (though tragic), at times, funny to read.

Essentially, Garfield gets elected which, Guiteau (naturally) thinks is as a result of his having made an obscure, plagiarized speech this one time to some 20 people a few states away. Thus, obviously, Garfield owes Guiteau big time. These being the days of presidential open "office hours" (which, yes, turned out to be problematic) he, goes to the White House to let his preferences be known: [On the speech he submitted to Garfield] he had written “Paris Consulship” and drawn a line between those words and his name, “so that the President would remember what I wanted" Finally, much to his annoyance, god tells him to hell with it! he just has to remove Garfield from office, which worked out fine for Guiteau since it would make him pretty famous. Although he believed he was doing God’s work, he had been driven for so long by a desire for fame and prestige that his first thought was not how he would assassinate the president, but the attention he would receive after he did. Literally, his considerations before assassinating the president include: getting a gun that it would look sufficiently "nice" in its place of honor in the Library of Congress (he ended up going with an English Bulldog Pistol, seen below), checking out the jail to make sure its accommodations were up to snuff, getting his shoes shined for the impending press coverage, and penning a ‘You're Welcome’ note to VP Chester Arthur.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the little note he sent to good ol' General Sherman requesting that he and his troops show up and rescue him from jail when they get a chance?!? Well, he did that too.
Sherman, he was confident, would soon receive his letter and send out the troops to free him, and Vice President Arthur, overwhelmed with gratitude, would be eager to be of any assistance. Guiteau's delusions don't stop there, but you'll just have to enjoy that ride for yourself. Part II of Garfield's death is where we get some great nineteenth century Medicine which (shock me shock me) is also chock full of egocentric characters.

If there's one major lesson learned from this book it would be this: if you're president, stay the hell away from Robert Todd Lincoln. Seriously! He was at three presidential assassinations (also he brought in this doctor who was kind of a bad choice, but I digress). ...more

5

Jan 09, 2019

In an interesting, quasi-biographical piece, Candice Millard explores the brief presidency of James A. Garfield and the assassination attempt that would eventually take his life. While it would seem a clear-cut task, Millard broadens the story to include a few additional individuals, whose actions play a key role in better understanding events surrounding the president’s lingering before finally succumbing in September 1881. Millard opens the narrative at the Centennial Exposition, where In an interesting, quasi-biographical piece, Candice Millard explores the brief presidency of James A. Garfield and the assassination attempt that would eventually take his life. While it would seem a clear-cut task, Millard broadens the story to include a few additional individuals, whose actions play a key role in better understanding events surrounding the president’s lingering before finally succumbing in September 1881. Millard opens the narrative at the Centennial Exposition, where celebrations surrounding one hundred years of American nationhood were taking place There, as Congressman James A. Garfield wandered around the grounds, two men were also present, prepared to discuss some of their scientific findings. The first, British surgeon Dr. Joseph Lister, who sought to explain to his American colleagues the importance of antisepsis. Struggling as he was, Lister could not sway those present of the importance of a sterile field while working or of the need for utmost cleanliness when handling open wounds. His words, which were impacting the way European doctors were handling patients, would prove to be foreboding in the years to come. The other man, shuffled away at the Exposition, was Alexander Graham Bell, a Scot who was trying to show off his telephone, which was still in its infancy. Bell did receive some takers, though the process of being able to hear someone’s voice when they are a distance away was still baffling. Millard peppers the narrative with backstories and mini-biographies as she advances the successes of Garfield, particularly when he went to Chicago in the summer of 1880, host of the Republican National Convention, to put forth a nominee for president. By the end of the gruelling voting process, Garfield was handed the nomination, which he reluctantly accepted. A powerful speaker, Garfield was respected by his peers and was seen to be a sure winner when he faced his Democratic opponent in November. In a parallel narrative, the reader learns all about Charles Guiteau, a failed lawyer and evangelical preacher, who soon became fixated on all things related to Garfield. When the ballots were cast and Garfield won the presidency—something that Millard describes as being a prize Garfield accepted without much fanfare—Guiteau began an eerie communication with the president-elect, first congratulating him and then stalking him for a posting in the new government. As Millard illustrates, Guiteau was known around town as a swindler who would not pay his bills, though he was adamant that he should have a prominent role in the Garfield Administration, more because he was first to ask than meriting anything in particular. When nothing came from the president, Guiteau continued and appeared around the White House, partaking in an awkward discussion with the First Lady, who remembered his presence in her diary. Eventually, Guiteau realised that Divine Intervention, which had already guided Garfield to become president, was now calling for the president’s death. Guiteau plotted and planned, eventually choosing a train station, where he fired multiple times into Garfield. The shots were not immediately fatal, though a doctor who quickly attended the president sought to probe the wound—on the dirty floor of the station—with his bare finger. Lodging it into the wound, the doctor surely introduced much grime and bacteria, thereby pushing it deep into the president’s body. After the panic of securing the president and arresting Guiteau, who voluntarily handed himself over, medical staff attempted to help Garfield and save his life. Enter, Alexander Graham Bell, who had been thinking about how to use some of the technology surrounding his telephone to locate the bullet, which might aid in saving the life of President Garfield. Before the invention of the x-ray, Graham’s use of sound through current induction and blockages would likely be able to help locate the lead bullet, preventing sepsis and other potentially fatal issues. As the days moved along, Garfield’s health ebbed and flowed, even as Bell attempted to use his makeshift invention. While Bell was able to see the president and introduce some of this early medical technology, the bullet was not located or extracted. Days turned to weeks and Garfield became weaker, with abscesses appearing all over his body, pus seeping out when they were punctured. All the while, Guiteau remained in custody, writing and pondering what might happen next. After a hot summer and doctors trying to alleviate stagnant air, which might be the cause of much distress for Garfield, September came and the president’s health took a significant drop. Each passing day saw his condition worsen until he finally succumbed to the gunshot wounds. The 20th President of the United States was dead, his assassin in custody, and the vice-president, Chester A. Arthur, equally disinterested in the role of president, assumed the role of America’s leader. Alexander Graham Bell was beside himself with grief, but knew he had done all that he could. In an interesting closing segment of the book, Millard documents the autopsy of President Garfield, which revealed abscesses and a body riddled with infection, particularly along the pathway the bullet took and a finger probed. Had Dr. Lister’s warnings been heeded those years ago, it is quite possible that President James A. Garfield could have lived and served a full term in office. Then again, history is filled with ‘what if’ moments, some of which would surely have changed things in a significant manner. A brilliant look at Garfield, Guiteau, and a few others whose decisions impacted the short Garfield presidency in a significant manner. Recommended for presidential history buffs, as well as those who enjoy seeing some of the lesser known aspects to the Garfield presidency and assassination attempt.

I recently finished a biography on Chester A. Arthur and was able to learn a little about Garfield during that time. I found what scraps were presented to me to be not only captivating, but also needing more detail. Millard’s book came highly recommended to be and I devoured it, thinking that it would be the biography of James A. Garfield that I sought. Rather than being a traditional biography, Millard offers a few mini-biographies while threading together the events that led up to Charles Guiteau shooting the president in the summer of 1881. I took away much from the book and its parallel narratives, all of which mesh at the appropriate times. I was astounded to learn about the Bell connection to the entire process, thinking him as a man whose attention was primarily on honing his telephone. The portions relating to Charles Guiteau not only strengthen my belief that he was somewhat detached with the rest of the world, but also that his fanciful ideas may have fuelled a vendetta against Garfield. Small snippets that discuss Chester Arthur and the role that many felt he had in his boss’ death cannot be discounted, but, like Garfield, I cannot find reason to believe that there was a substantial plot. I leave it to the reader to discover some aspects to the story I have chosen to hold back, permitting others to discover the wonders of Millard’s efforts. The writing is clear and tells an interesting aspect of American history that has been glossed over in many history books. Each chapter opens with a poignant quote by James A. Garfield, introducing the reader to even more bits of facts gleaned from the historical record, followed by a smooth narrative that transitions seamlessly from one topic to another. Any reader who enjoys history, particularly that which is not common knowledge, should locate and devour this book in short order.

Kudos, Madam Millard, for a stunning piece of writing. I took so much away from it and hope to look into some of your other work in short order.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ...more

5

Jul 19, 2019

Okay,this IS the best thing I've read all year,maybe ever.I knew that Garfield had been assassinated,and that's all.This read like a novel.The research Millard went through was awe inspiring,and her writing skill is peerless.I had read her book,The River of Doubt,and gave it a huge rating as well.Because of Candice's book,James Garfield is now one of my two favourite presidents.The other of course is Theodore Roosevelt.
With a cast of characters including Joseph Lister, Alexander Graham Okay,this IS the best thing I've read all year,maybe ever.I knew that Garfield had been assassinated,and that's all.This read like a novel.The research Millard went through was awe inspiring,and her writing skill is peerless.I had read her book,The River of Doubt,and gave it a huge rating as well.Because of Candice's book,James Garfield is now one of my two favourite presidents.The other of course is Theodore Roosevelt.
With a cast of characters including Joseph Lister, Alexander Graham Bell,Frederick Douglass,this is a historical delight.If there was ever a finer exemplar of humanity than Garfield I would like to know about him/her.Some of the strongest figures in this book were women.Julia Sand,his mother Eliza,his wife Lucretia,his daughter Mary(Mollie).This book could also be called a love story.Garfield's love of
family and his fellow man no matter their shortcomings.What an outstanding individual.
Candice has over 40 pages of notes with page numbers included so there are no jarring stops and starts in the reading.There are 11 pages of bibliography.And I have never enjoyed reading acknowledgements as much as I have in this book.I think Candice Millard is a very sweet person.And yes!There are pictures. ...more

3

Apr 19, 2019

The 23rd most smashable US President finally gets the spotlight in this astonishing reconsideration of a man who, lest you forget, was singlehandedly responsible for...for...what did he do again?



He died! He got shot before he'd even served a year, and then slowly died of the infections brought on by his idiot doctors. This was just after the Civil War, when doctors treated most wounds with saws. He accomplished nothing.



This presents a problem for this bizarrely worshipful book, whose goal seems The 23rd most smashable US President finally gets the spotlight in this astonishing reconsideration of a man who, lest you forget, was singlehandedly responsible for...for...what did he do again?



He died! He got shot before he'd even served a year, and then slowly died of the infections brought on by his idiot doctors. This was just after the Civil War, when doctors treated most wounds with saws. He accomplished nothing.



This presents a problem for this bizarrely worshipful book, whose goal seems to be to mythologize Garfield for no clear purpose. He owned no shoes until he was four, yells author Candice Millard! He memorized the Odyssey! Black people thought he seemed relatively nice!



It seems like she's looking for an excuse to tell this story, which is pretty good. A guy gets shot by some wackjob. It's not a fatal injury, but then his doctor basically murders him by sticking his finger into his bullet wound every day and fishing around in there and he dies slowly and painfully and gushing pus. Alexander Graham Bell shows up with a metal detector he just invented, to try to find the bullet. (Seriously!) It reads like Devil in the White City with presidents. It's fun to read, but I can't say it convinced me that Garfield was at all important. At least not until after I've boned 22nd-most-smashable President Grover Cleveland.

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5

Oct 27, 2016

Wow! Who knew?! When I saw that our Minneapolis Institute of Art book club had picked this for the October book tour, I knew I would read it, but was unsure about whether I would like it. (Although the stellar reviews from my GR community were encouraging.) I did not just like it, I LOVED it. And it was so appropriate to where we are right now in the States with the election just a couple of weeks away.

Millard's story of Garfield, his life and his death by assassination read like a novel. It Wow! Who knew?! When I saw that our Minneapolis Institute of Art book club had picked this for the October book tour, I knew I would read it, but was unsure about whether I would like it. (Although the stellar reviews from my GR community were encouraging.) I did not just like it, I LOVED it. And it was so appropriate to where we are right now in the States with the election just a couple of weeks away.

Millard's story of Garfield, his life and his death by assassination read like a novel. It reminded me in structure of The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, but to me was even more interesting. That Garfield died in September of the year he was inaugurated was tragic, especially given he was shot in early July and was unable to fulfill his duties thereafter.

I kept thinking how the world might be different if he had lived out his presidency. He believed in and practiced equality of the races, having fought during the Civil War and been in Congress during the passing of the 13th Amendment. Given his own impoverished background and how education had lifted him up, he believed that education was a path to success for all people. He was loved by "the people", was a great orator and, indeed, didn't even put himself forward as a candidate for president - he was nominated after many ballots at the nominating convention. He felt it his duty to be the candidate if people felt that strongly about it! These things are hard to imagine today. Another thing hard to imagine was that candidates did not typically campaign on their own behalf. Garfield spend the campaign at home with his family in Ohio, where he spoke from his front porch with hundreds of people who travelled to see him. Yes, just imagine!!

We also get a glimpse into what was happening during this time period. Antisepsis was just being introduced from Europe as a way to reduce infection and death after surgery, but established East Coast doctors did not accept that there was such a thing as germs!! Alexander Graham Bell had just invented the telephone, but his mind was also abuzz with other ideas for inventions. Why we might ask were these included in the book? After Garfield was shot in the Potomac train station by a deranged office-seeker, Charles Guiteau, doctors on the spot and later at the White House probed his body with dirty fingers and instruments - OVER AND OVER - to try to find the bullet. The arrogant Dr. Willard Bliss who basically took over Garfield's care against everyone's will to promote his own career, ended up truly being the cause of Garfield's death. Bell worked to invent a metal detector to find the bullet without probing, but Bliss confined Bell's search to the wrong side of Garfield's body. He was NOT going to be proven wrong in his assumptions, proving ignorance is truly Bliss.

I could go on, but I will just say "read this book!!". The story told by Millard is brought dramatically to life by Paul Michael in the audiobook. I see there are numerous footnotes (and maybe pictures?) that I missed, so on to check out the print book from the library!

Update Oct 28 I just learned that PBS broadcast a documentary on Garfield in February of this year (2016) called Murder of a President. It is available until February 2019 to stream. http://www.pbs.org/video/2365653928/ It was also available from my library in DVD format. Candace Millard is one of the on-screen contributors - I'm eager to see it.

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5

Feb 25, 2016

"I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat." James A. Garfield

Without a doubt, "Destiny of the Republic" is one of the most interesting and thought provoking non-fiction books I've read in quite some time. Author Candice Millard does an extraordinary job of enlightening readers about the life of James A. Garfield, and the political, scientific, and medical theories and practices of the "I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat." James A. Garfield

Without a doubt, "Destiny of the Republic" is one of the most interesting and thought provoking non-fiction books I've read in quite some time. Author Candice Millard does an extraordinary job of enlightening readers about the life of James A. Garfield, and the political, scientific, and medical theories and practices of the day.

Garfield is one of those Presidents that many Americans (including me prior to reading this book) just don't know much about. Most probably don't even recall that he is one of the four sitting Presidents who have been assassinated. Millard introduces us to this remarkable man.

Born into absolute poverty (he didn't own a pair of shoes until he was 4 years old), Garfield did have the advantage of being born into a family which gave him love, and showed him the value of education and hard work -- values he would hold through his entire life.

It's history book, so there are lots of names and dates, but Millard makes the story come alive (I would say it's nearly a page-turner!) as she leads us though Garfield's life as a student, Civil War General, and politician. During the extremely contentious Republican Convention of 1880, after many days of casting ballots for the Party's Presidential candidate, Garfield would emerge as the nominee -- surprising everyone, including himself. "This honor comes to be unsought. I have never had the Presidential fever; not even for a day." (James Garfield)

After only four months in office, Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a mentally unstable man who had been trying to receive a political appointment from Garfield.

History, medicine, and science all have an interesting, and tragic, collision here. While the gunshot wounds harmed Garfield, had proper medical procedures been followed, he almost certainly would have survived. What killed Garfield was not the gunshot, but the raging infection caused by unsanitary medical practices coupled with the arrogance and hubris of his doctor. Sadly, Garfield died from infection 2 1/2 months after he was shot.

Nearly 20 years prior to Garfield's shooting, Dr. Charles Lister of England had developed a theory about germs and the necessity of sterilization in medical procedures. He would use carbolic acid to sterilize his medical tools, and was fastidious about only allowing sterilized tools to be used in surgery. He presented his research throughout Europe (where sterilization was largely adopted) and at Expos throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, most doctors and scientists in the U.S. utterly dismissed Lister's claims and thought it "ridiculous" that there were "invisible germs" in the air that humans needed to protect themselves from.

Garfield's doctor, Dr. Charles Bliss, not only ignored advice about sterilization, but refused the advice of other doctors and scientists who wanted to help Garfield's recovery. Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell even tried to aid in Garfield's recovery by inventing an "induction balance" machine to locate the missing bullet which was still lodged in Garfield's body. However, Dr. Bliss was so arrogantly stubborn he only allowed Bell to search one small part of Garfield's body for the missing bullet -- the side where Bliss was sure the bullet must be lodged. The autopsy revealed that the bullet was located on the opposite side of Garfield's body and had never damaged any organs.

Garfield came to office at a time when the U.S. was still healing from the Civil War. Millard describes him as a man of integrity who truly was a unifier -- the first post-war President who had the support of the entire U.S. (even though he was a Union General and a life-long abolitionist) In his short time in office he tried to do away with the Spoils System (where political jobs were handed out as political favors) and move to a merit-based system. Personally, he had qualities which are admirable. Even as his lay dying, he remained "kind, patient, cheerful, and deeply grateful."

When I read history, I can't help of think both of what has changed and what hasn't changed. It's easy to see the advances in transportation, telecommunications, and medicine. But some things stubbornly refuse to change. In 1881 Charles Guiteau, a man who was clearly mentally unhinged and who had an extensive criminal record, had unfettered access to go and buy a gun. In 2016, with few exceptions, that is still the same case.

In the mid 1800s, Charles Lister brought forth theories based on scientific evidence and proof -- and was mocked. Irreparable damage was done in the process. The same thing happens today when people don't want to admit what is right in front of their eyes (climate change, anyone?) When Lister finally saw his ideas not only "vindicated, but venerated" he said "I regard all worldly distinctions as nothing in comparison with the hope that I may have been the means of reducing in some degree the sum of human misery."

5 solid stars AND I look forward to reading more by Candice Millard
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5

Aug 09, 2018

Philadelphia, 1876, the city hosted a centennial event celebrating the first 100 years of the United States, where people from around the world demonstrated their inventions. Among those present were Alexander Graham Bell and Joseph Lister. Bell was showing his invention, the telephone, and Lister was promoting the discovery of germs and the benefits of antisepsis in medical operating rooms.

A few years later in Chicago, 1880, only 5 years after the great Chicago fire, the Republican National Philadelphia, 1876, the city hosted a centennial event celebrating the first 100 years of the United States, where people from around the world demonstrated their inventions. Among those present were Alexander Graham Bell and Joseph Lister. Bell was showing his invention, the telephone, and Lister was promoting the discovery of germs and the benefits of antisepsis in medical operating rooms.

A few years later in Chicago, 1880, only 5 years after the great Chicago fire, the Republican National Convention was underway. A well know statesman was introducing a candidate, and during his introductory speech, the crowd became more and more adamant to nominate the speaker and not the candidate. The speaker was James A. Garfield who was not interested in running for President at all, and he had no desire to become the leader of the Nation. Garfield may have become a great President if for no other reason that he never wanted the job.

In March 1881, Garfield was elected the 20th President of the United States, and was soon shot in the back by a madman on July 2nd. He died September 19, 1881, with only five months in office.

I knew little about this man, more than likely because of his short tenure. This is the story of James A. Garfield who was genuinely loved by all, northerner or southerner, black or white. When the word spread of his death, America mourned.

This is an outstanding book, well written and story told perfectly. I highly recommend it. ...more

5

Aug 26, 2018

I read this book as an answer to a prompt: read a book of narrative non-fiction. ANYTHING with historical content is on my favorites list. But when a book is both true AND reads like a novel, that is my truly, next to my heart, favorite genre.

Of course, I had heard of James A Garfield, the USA's 20th president, and that he was assassinated, but I did not know

- that he lingered for two and a half months before dying
- that it was serious infection that riddled his body that killed him, not the I read this book as an answer to a prompt: read a book of narrative non-fiction. ANYTHING with historical content is on my favorites list. But when a book is both true AND reads like a novel, that is my truly, next to my heart, favorite genre.

Of course, I had heard of James A Garfield, the USA's 20th president, and that he was assassinated, but I did not know

- that he lingered for two and a half months before dying
- that it was serious infection that riddled his body that killed him, not the bullet
- that American doctors, at the time, knew nothing of antiseptic procedures or more accurately, thought they were a waste of time and did not follow them
- that the doctors that cared for him did not even believe germs existed
- that Alexander Graham Bell was involved, trying to invent a metal detector that would find the bullet

This book is full of such facts, and includes insight into Garfield's personality and the political environment of the 1870's - 1880's. It also describes the personality and motivations of Charles Guiteau, his assassin.

This book brought tears to my eyes, due to the utter incompetence and hubris of his main doctor,
Doctor Willard Bliss (his first NAME was DOCTOR). It may be said after this debacle of errors, that IGNORANCE IS BLISS.

5 stars ...more

5

Apr 09, 2016

This book was amazing. Seriously. It will also turn your stomach and cause you to hate certain segments of the population.

Garfield's death was probably one of the greatest tragedies in American History. He truly seemed liked an incredible human being, and would have been such a wonderful president. I had no idea what a genius we lost when he was murdered.

Highly - HIGHLY - recommend this book.

5

Jan 14, 2017

Excellent history, engagingly written. I give it ***** as I couldn't put it down. The story focuses on the assassination of James A. Garfield, but it became a really riveting story for me as it detailed the doctors' efforts to save the life of Garfield. I was aware that, unlike Lincoln, Garfield could have been (easily) saved by present-day medical practice. But I didn't know that he could have been saved in 1881--if the doctors had used up-to-date methods of the time. Dr. Joseph Lister in Excellent history, engagingly written. I give it ***** as I couldn't put it down. The story focuses on the assassination of James A. Garfield, but it became a really riveting story for me as it detailed the doctors' efforts to save the life of Garfield. I was aware that, unlike Lincoln, Garfield could have been (easily) saved by present-day medical practice. But I didn't know that he could have been saved in 1881--if the doctors had used up-to-date methods of the time. Dr. Joseph Lister in England had demonstrated the life-saving value of antisepsis to prevent infection--but most American doctors did not accept it. So it was not the lunatic Charles Guiteau who actually killed Garfield, but Dr. Willard Bliss and the other doctors who had unsterilized fingers and instruments inserted into the wound, searching for the bullet--and causing the infection of the wound which killed the president. Candice Millard makes it clear that the loss of the 20th president was a tragedy for the nation and I would add it was a very preventable one... ...more

3

Apr 01, 2017

James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States, assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker. I remember those exact words from my childhood lessons in American history, as I suspect do most other Americans. Millard makes the case for a more meaningful historical legacy. Between his inauguration on March 5 and the shooting on July 2, Garfield was an active opponent of the “spoils system”. Despite the distraction of his wife Lucretia's near fatal illness in May, he installed his own James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States, assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker. I remember those exact words from my childhood lessons in American history, as I suspect do most other Americans. Millard makes the case for a more meaningful historical legacy. Between his inauguration on March 5 and the shooting on July 2, Garfield was an active opponent of the “spoils system”. Despite the distraction of his wife Lucretia's near fatal illness in May, he installed his own appointee as Customs House Director for the port of New York City, defying intense pressure from Roscoe Conkling, the powerful senator from New York. The appointment was significant. It established Garfield's commitment to an independent executive branch, and it blocked Conkling's access to a lucrative lever for corruption. Over 90% of all customs duties came through the port of New York City.

It is surprising that Garfield became his party's Presidential nominee almost by accident. His credentials were ideal. He was literally born in a log cabin, grew up in poverty, worked as a common laborer, first on an Erie Canal barge and later as a janitor at the school he attended. He was a Civil War veteran and an experienced politician, thanks to longstanding service in the Ohio state legislature. What impresses the contemporary reader, however, were his erudition and personal integrity. He had a love for languages and the classics. He was well-read and gave his first daughter, Elizabeth, the nickname “Trot”, a reference to Betsy Trotwood in Charles Dickens' DAVID COPPERFIELD. He was an enthusiastic attendee at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, an event showcasing America's technological progress. He valued his agrarian roots and experimented with irrigation techniques and homemade fertilization compounds on the grounds of his home, Lawnfield. In the spring of 1876 his original proof of Pythagoras' Theorem was published in the New England Journal of Education. He was a close friend and supporter of John Wesley Powell. In 1879 he helped create the U.S. Geological Survey which Powell later headed. As for his personal beliefs, he was critical of colleagues whose judgment was clouded by political ambition. “Even Garfield, who admired Blaine and considered him a friend, believed that the senator had become 'warped' by his all-consuming quest for the White House, willing to sacrifice any cause, even his own honor, in the pursuit of this one, overriding ambition.” (Location 621)

Would Garfield have remained true to his principles had he lived? Would he have been an effective voice presaging the Progressive movement led by Theodore Roosevelt in the beginning of the 20th century? Millard does not speculate on the subject. Instead, despite the many chapters she devotes to Garfield, he haunts this book as a wraith, more of a victim than a tragic figure.

Millard approaches her subject in the context of a pivotal point in American history. Despite the achievements touted at the Centennial Exhibition, two of the most influential luminaries of the age were consigned to minor positions. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone was buried in an obscure corner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts exhibition hall. Joseph Lister, who had advanced Pasteur's work with microbes by introducing a sterilization protocol for surgical procedures was dismissed by American physicians, despite the acceptance of his theories in Great Britain and Europe. One point Millard does not mention is that America was on the verge of the “Gilded Age.”

Millard highlights the many contrasts between today and 1880. The President was not guarded by the Secret Service. There were no security precautions, despite Lincoln's assassination fifteen years earlier. The Secret Service's primary task was pursuing counterfeiters. The White House was virtually uninhabitable during the summer. Humidity, and poor ventilation added to the discomfort of falling plaster and worn furnishings due to inadequate funding for upkeep and repairs. Presidential candidates did not traverse the country to campaign — it was considered undignified. Most important, the President was expected to receive candidates for government appointments for large blocks of time on a daily basis. Garfield complained bitterly about this practice. Hundreds of faces filling every weekday morning, preventing him from attending to any real work. “These people would take my very brains, flesh and blood if they could,” Garfield was said to have complained to his secretary. (Location 1477)

Millard structures her book with chapters alternating between Garfield and the assassin Charles Guiteau. Had Guiteau been tried today, he would certainly have been declared insane. Guiteau maintained that he was the instrument of God, following a divine calling. This grandiose sense of self-importance caused his unlamented departure from the Oneida Community in 1865. While living with his sister, he threatened her with an ax. He believed his support was instrumental in getting Garfield elected and demanded an appointment as ambassador to France. He was a daily fixture in the waiting rooms not only of Garfield but of other government officials. When he took his demands to Senator John Logan of Illinois, Logan would later recall: “I must say that I thought there was some derangement of his mental organization.” (Location 1802) After the shooting, Guiteau was convinced that General Sherman would free him from jail and Vice-President Chester Alan Arthur would, as newly elevated President, reward him. It is therefore, somewhat shocking to learn that Guiteau actually stumbled on one accurate statement during his trial. He maintained he had only shot Garfield; the doctors had actually killed him.

Millard demonstrates that in fact, Garfield was a dead man the minute the doctors began to examine him, probing the bullet hole with their fingers, and prodding him later with unsterilized instruments in attempts to guess where the bullet might have gone. This is the most fascinating part of the book. A physician named D. Willard Bliss took charge of the case. After a series of procedures that amounted to torture, one can imagine Garfield was eager to embrace death. His demand to view the ocean one last time is one of the truly poignant passages in the book. The one sensible participant in the case was Alexander Graham Bell, who designed an instrument to locate the bullet. His efforts failed not because of a defect in the instrument, but because Bliss insisted Bell limit his examination to a designated area, and omitted the information that under the mattress lay a framework of metal springs. Of course, it is easy to blame Bliss for Garfield's death. It is far more productive, however, to recall the primitive state of medicine in the late 19th century, and the important contribution a patriotic inventor made to medical instrumentation. Bell's invention was based on principles that would much later lead to the invention of magnetic resonance imaging.

Millard has obviously researched her subject thoroughly. However, she never captures the sense of historical immersion and focused dramatic narrative she achieved in her earlier book, RIVER OF DOUBT; Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Nevertheless, her book is thought provoking. Despite Guiteau's obvious insanity, his execution does not excite much sympathy in the reader. That, perhaps, is ethically troubling in an age when we pride ourselves on a sophisticated understanding of justice. Despite Chester Arthur's career as a political stooge to Conkling, Arthur rose to the occasion as President. His support for the Pendleton Act led to the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and ended the "spoils system". Consider, for a moment, where we would be today if the “spoils system” prevailed. Arthur's reinvention of himself takes on the dimensions of a fairy tale. I wonder if such a transformation is still even possible in modern day politics. For all of its flaws, I do not regret the time spent in reading this book. ...more