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Destiny of the Republic
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Destiny of the Republic (2011) (edit title/settings)

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

by Candice Millard (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

An enthralling and detailed true story of the amazing people and facts surrounding the assassination of President James Garfield.

Summary edit see section history

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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

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.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “"Light itself is a great corrective. A thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown in darkness disappear like owls and bats before the light of day." JA Garfield”
  • “"If wrinkles must be written upon our brow, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old." JA Garfield”
  • “"There is no Stratification of society in this country like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and let another come to the surface to stay there forever. Our Stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls." James A. Garfield”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Washington D.C.
  • Mentor, Ohio: Garfield family farm location, east of Cleveland.

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

Even severed as it was from the rest of the body, the hand was majestic.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue: Chosen

Part 1: Promise
1: The Scientific Spirit
2: Providence
3: "A Beam in Darkness"
4: God's Minute Man
5: Bleak Mountain

Part 2: War
6: Hand and Soul
7: Real Brutuses and Bolingbrokes
8: Brains, Flesh, and Blood
9: Casus Belli
10: The Dark Dreams of Presidents
11: "A Desperate Deed"

Part 3: Fear
12: "Thank God It Is All Over"
13: "It's True"
14: All Evil Consequences
15: Blood-Guilty

Part 4: Tortured for the Republic
16: Neither Death nor Life
17: One Nation
18: "Keep Heart"
19: On a Mountaintop, Alone
20: Terror, Hope, and Despair
21: After All
22: All the Angels of the Universe
Epilogue: Forever and Forever More
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Illustrations

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Amazon.com Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in Kirkus Reviews: Best Nonfiction of 2011. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Candice Millard (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: USA
Publication Date: September 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-52626-5
Page Count: 339

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: E687.9.M55
  • Dewey: 973.8'4092

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Due to the detailed nature of the medical information and adult content this book is not appropriate for younger children.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
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  • Reclaiming History
  • Who's Who In The JFK Assassination
  • Killing Lincoln
  • Manhunt
  • Blood on the Moon
  • The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia
  • The President and the Assassin
  • Murdering McKinley
  • The Assassination of William McKinley (Library of Political Assassinations)

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