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 assas More...

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

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 More...

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.

Candice Millard, the dishy 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 w More...

Interesting! I listened to this on Audible. Narration was fine, except when a Scottish accent was attempted. I felt almost amazed to see how all these separate events met together at this fairly fuzzy point in history (at least, fuzzy to me). Recommended, even though some aspects are a bit weak (quibbles listed last).

This is a biography of President James A. Garfield, who was assassinated (shot point blank) in 1881 by Charles Guiteau, dying several months later from widespread infection.

In telli More...

James Garfield was in office for just 200 days: the second shortest presidency in U.S. history. But this relatively obscure president had the potential to be one of the all-timers until an assassin’s bullet, and the medical “care” he received as a result, ended his life. Candace Millard’s book does an impressive job of telling Garfield’s story while also exploring the larger world of late 19th century America.

The book opens on the 1876 World’s Fair, where Alexander Graham Bell first unveiled th More...

Destiny of the Republic weaves a story that includes a president, political corruption, a crazy man, medicine, and Alexander Graham Bell. Intrigued? You should be.

Millard paints a full picture of President James A. Garfield, describing his early life, his marriage, and his first months in office. She breathes life into his personality and who he was in terms of his beliefs and feelings to the point where I almost feel like I know him. She details his shooting (assassination? not precisely), his More...

This is one of the most interesting biography/history books I've been fortunate to read. The story of the brief Presidency of James Garfield is little known though Millard's work is changing that situation. He came to the Presidency almost accidentally as the Republicans chose him without his campaigning for the position--a compromise of sorts---and a man who became a very popular choice, a man of the people.

Sadly his life would intersect with a madman and with doctors (one in particular) too ce More...

This is such an excellent book. Eloquent, fair-minded Garfield was only president for four months before an unhinged office seeker named Charles J. Guiteau shot him in the back. Then Garfield struggled for over two months before his body finally succumbed. Destiny of the Republic paints those 6 months in America in sharp detail, by focusing on this one story. This is a book about the stoic man who became President, his assassin, the inventor Alexander Graham Bell (who tried to help save the Pres More...

If the 20th U. S. President, James A. Garfield, had not been so well attended by doctors, he very well might have survived being shot by an assassin. If his doctors, especially the controlling and pompous Dr. Doctor Bliss (no, Dr. Doctor is not a mistype), had been willing to practice Lister's antisepsis techniques, Garfield might have lived. And if the assassin, Guiteau, hadn't been a megalomaniac who thought he was supposed to kill the president, the medical care would never have been needed. More...

James A. Garfield was born into extreme poverty in Ohio and rose to become President of the United States. The only thing most people remember of him today is that he was one of our assignated presidents. But there is much more to the man which most of us know nothing about. He never sought or campaigned for the presidency but was nominated by the Republican Party when it was deadlocked in convention. He did not die from the assassin's bullet but from the doctors who attended him because they di More...

This is non-fiction history at its best. Candice Millard has a remarkable ability to selectively pick out interrelated story lines from an abundance of historical records and arrange them in a narrative to create a compelling read. This book focuses on the 1881 assassination of the James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, and in the process of telling the story also describes the lives of various other individuals who were a part of that time in history.

This story takes place du More...

This book has so many cringe-worthy moments: the total lack of ANY presidential security or protection; the probing of President James Garfield's gun wound on the dirty floor where he fell by unclean tools and fingers; the disbelief by so many American physicians in Joseph Lister's work that proved that antiseptics play a huge part in saving the lives of patients; the complete idiocy of the president's attending physician, D. Willard Bliss. It is hard from the vantage point of 2012 to believe th More...

Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic manages to breath new life into a part of history many have forgotten or ignored. Centering on President Garfield's tragic shooting, and even more tragic death at the hands of his doctors, Millard fuses history with a novelist's grasp of story telling. Few remember Garfield today for any contribution he made to history, and his short tenure as president makes Garfield's contribution to the oval office problematic. Having a degree in History I was suprise More...

It's interesting that this year brought two books about the two presidential assassinations that occurred within twenty-years of each other in the later part of the 1800's. "Destiny of the Republic" about the assassination which occurred just four months into the presidency of James Garfield is the better of the two. I'll review "The President and the Assassin" about the murder of President McKinley later this week.

A lot of the strength of "Destiny" is due to author, Candice Millard's wonderful More...

Candice Millard's fast-paced narrative is a splendid retelling of the events surrounding President Garfield's assassination. Shot by a madman after serving only four months in office, Garfield clung to life for another eight weeks, finally succumbing on September 19, 1881. Millard deftly captures the political climate of the time (which in some ways resembles our own), and she includes a gripping account of Alexander Graham Bell's desperate attempt to perfect an invention that he believed might More...

The riveting story of President James A. Garfield, a man whose history is neither widely known nor properly appreciated. His election was historic, his presidency united the broken nation after the Civil War, and his death ushered in a new era in health care.

Garfield's humble beginnings and his rise to the highest office in the nation is inspiring and incredible. His love story with his beloved wife Lucretia is tender and sweet. His horrific and agonizing death is shocking and unbelievable. His More...

There was a string of presidential assassinations in the 19th Century -- not so many as to draw a pattern, but enough that they tend to crowd each other out. Lincoln's was the first, and it remains the one best known. McKinley's death was noteworthy as much for bringing Teddy Roosevelt to the White House. But in between was James Garfield, Civil War veteran, political dark horse, and, as far as I can tell from this book, just a step or two short of being a saint.

Garfield remains unknown largely More...

I really enjoyed this book. I like histories that interweave their basic story with other interesting and important happenings of the time. Candice Millard's engaging writing makes this a quick read - I didn't want to put the book down. James Garfield was shot by an assassin only 3 months after taking office. Millard makes it clear that this was a tragedy for the country because Garfield had all the makings of an excellent president. Garfield died, not from the assassin's bullet but from the inc More...

President James Garfield was to me a bit of a "trivia" answer, the fourth assassinated president that nobody can remember. This book therefore was something of a revelation. He pulled himself up from crushing poverty and following a distinguished military, legal and academic career, was nominated (against his wishes) to stand as the Republican party for the Presidency. All indications were that he would have been one of the better presidents, but his life was cut short by a bullet from Charles G More...

This book was largely purchased on a whim. I had really enjoyed the biographies of Adams and Franklin, so was on the lookout for other historical biographies that could be as good. With the previous books though, I had a somewhat good idea of the subjects' lives and histories. Part of what intrigued me about Destiny of the Republic was that I knew almost nothing about Garfield. Like most Americans about all I could conjure up was his lasagna-loving namesake.

The gamble paid off. It ended up being More...

Great book! History the way that I like to read it! I remembered pretty much nothing about James A. Garfield from my high school/college history classes, including that he was assassinated just a few months after taking office, but after reading this, I really wish that he'd had a chance to finish out his presidency, reluctant though he was to take on that role. The poster child for living the American Dream, he sounded like an absolutely remarkable man that could have accomplished a lot as pres More...

4/5 stars. Really liked this book - just finished it last night. If more books on history were written like this with lots of interesting information, in addition to being a very well written thriller to engage the reader, more people would come to love studying history. It was nice to learn more about a lesser known president, James Garfield, that was truly an inspiration in both his life and death, along with learning more about the advance of the technology and medicine of the times, especial More...

The Destiny of the Republic seemed disjointed. I could never find the flow, although the information was fascinating. In River of Doubt, it felt like the story lines eventually were woven together, but this one lacked any semblance of that flow or coming to united conclusion. The epilogue was interesting, but didn't seem to help close the story. It felt like film credits rolling at the end of the tale. I was frustrated because I wanted to enjoy this history as much as I enjoyed River of Doubt, b More...

As a nurse, I find it fascinating. Since the MDs of the day thought Lister and his aseptic technique was tantamount to heresy, they might as well have poured a flask of bacteria straight into his wound. They essentially did, probing the wound on the floor of the railroad station with their fingers,a and later, with probes inserted as far as they would go. Amazing he lived as long as he did.

Having just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and enjoying it so much, I'm intrigued by this book, which sounds like it contains some similar themes and tone. Thanks to Susan for bringing it to my attention!

UPDATE

This is an interesting book, but it feels a bit padded - I'm more than halfway through it and Garfield just got shot. I've gotten a bit impatient with what feels like excessive detail, e.g., about Garfield's election and the assassin Guiteau's daily activities. The book des More...

It's a very well written account of President Garfield and the events (so far) leading up to his assassination Finished and really enjoyed the book. Well researched with so much information about the times and politics!

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn't kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pe

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I picked up this book because my knowledge of James Garfield could basically be summed up as: one of the 4 US Presidents who was assassinated in office. This book provided so much more; one wonders what Garfield might have left as legacy had he accomplished even one term in office...would he have eventually triumphed in the emerging battle to create a merit based public service? One has the impression that a significant part of the damage done to the corrupt, patronage system then in existence w More...