Let's Celebrate the Peaceful Passage of Power in the U.S. A. This Week

 

Hello and welcome to FOCUS on BOOKS, the latest series sparked by my love of reading. We explore fascinating, familiar, and new worlds created by authors. 

Every third Wednesday of the month, join us for a celebration of storytelling—spotlighting books, conversing with guest authors, and sharing my personal reading recommendations.  Giveaways, surprises, and games will add to the fun.

January 20 was the inauguration ceremony for our 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. I am celebrating this peaceful passage of power with you by sharing a book I read this summer about our 20th president. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and Murder of a President by Candice Millard, is the story behind the assassination of  President James A Garfield. He had only served four months of the four-year term when he was cut down by a maniac's bullet. 

Read the book's blurb below. My review explaining why I recommend it to those who love US history and for widening your reading horizons.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

BACK OF THE BOOK:

DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC: A TALE OF MADNESS, MEDICINE, AND THE MURDER OF A PRESIDENT by Candice Millard

"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." Photo and excerpt from book description at Amazon

MY REVIEW: Destiny of the Republic is the story of President Garfield's assassination in September 1881. I was surprised to learn that he did not die instantly from the gunshot wound; instead, he suffered for two and a half months before succumbing to the damage inflicted by the elusive bullet. Within those months he was treated by his doctor who insisted on being in charge of his care and allowed no one to usurp his position. His doctor dismissed the new notions like handwashing that could have reduced the risk of infection. 

Ms. Millard burns the scenes of sickness and death into the reader's brain. Her powerful descriptions open our eyes to the sight of a run-down White House and the view of the polluted Potomac River at this time in its history. She brings us into the scenes so we can imagine smelling the stink from the open sewer that ran under the White House and feeling the oppressive heat in the room where Garfield suffered draconian measures to search for the caustic bullet lodged in the President's body. 

Besides the doctor, Ms.Millard includes the story of the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, and Alexander Graham Bell who frantically tries to develop the x-ray machine to find the bullet.

I love reading history and learning about the stories of the presidents of the United States of America. I highly recommend this compelling book to U.S. history aficionados and anyone looking to expand their reading horizons.

Have you read this book? Please suggest books about U.S. Presidents in the comment section below.

J.Q. Rose

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