As his condition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect.

The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power-over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.īut the shot didn’t kill Garfield. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. You can click here for that full review by me, but in the interest of keeping all of my book discussion reports as similar in structure as possible, here is the publisher review courtesy of Lit Lovers:

I originally read, reviewed, and loved this nonfiction title back in January of 2012. Last Monday, my book group met to discuss Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.

Book review destiny of the republic