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Book Summary and Reviews of Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic

A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

by Candice Millard

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  • Sep 2011, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.

But the shot didn't kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in tur­moil. The unhinged assassin's half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation's future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect. As his con­dition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.

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Book Awards

  • award image Edgar Awards, 2012

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Moving set pieces...and sharply etched sketches of Blaine, the overwhelmed Arthur and larger portraits of the truly impressive Garfield and the thoroughly insane Guiteau make for compulsive reading. Superb American history." - Kirkus

"His death didn't greatly harm the nation, and Millard's story doesn't add much to previous understanding, but it's hard to imagine its being better told." - Publishers Weekly

This information about Destiny of the Republic was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Jim

Destiny of the Republic
Admittedly, before this book, I was not much of a reader. The flow of her prose and sheer coincidence of events during this period of history rekindled my interest in reading. Since then I have read her "River of Doubt" and other similar non-fiction books. This book certainly tops my short list of great reading.

Melissa

Garfield - who knew?
Excellent book and even with the extensive research the author did, it still read like a novel, and not a history book. Interesting to read it in an Election year and to see how far we've come, or not come as the case may be.
Garfield was a fascinating character and would have had an interesting Presidency had he been able to serve his entire term. Yet, maybe his legacy was to turn the world's attention to the field of medicine.
Looking forward to hearing Candice Millard speak locally about this book and will certainly read other books by her.

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Author Information

Candice Millard Author Biography

Photo: © Paul Versluis

Candice Millard is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic. Her book Hero of the Empire was named Amazon's number one history book of 2016. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and three children.

Link to Candice Millard's Website

Name Pronunciation
Candice Millard: mill-ARD (Last syllable rhymes with "hard.")

Other books by Candice Millard at BookBrowse
  • River of the Gods jacket
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