An engaging, highly-readable history of Garfield’s rise to the presidency and death.

James Abram 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, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation’s corrupt political establishment.

But four months after Garfield’s inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield survived the attack, but became the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power — over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic brings alive a forgotten chapter of U.S. history.

Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic has been on my radar for a very long time; it was first published in 2011, when I was still in college and reading through as many biographies of the US presidents as I could (for my studies, but also because I was generally interested). I never got around to reading it while at university, but with the recent Netflix adaptation — Death by Lightning — my interest in reading it was revived. So, I popped to Book City in Toronto (highly recommend this local chain), bought the book, and started reading it that same day.

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