Monday, April 15, 2013

Destiny of the Republic


What do you know about Garfield? I have to admit I didn't know much about James A. Garfield - scholar, Civil War hero, president of the United States. Garfield usually appears only as a brief entry in the history books. President for only a few short months, he was assassinated in 1881 by Charles Guiteau. In Destiny of the Republic: a tale of madness, medicine, and the murder of a president, Candice Millard does an excellent job of fleshing out the life of Garfield and state of the nation in the early 1880's.


The plot unfolds like a mystery with three threads weaving through the book. First, the story of Garfield. Then the life of the insane assassin, Charles Guiteau. And lastly, Alexander Graham Bell...wait...who? I couldn't imagine how Bell would fit in to the story, but I knew the characters would eventually cross paths in the future, just like in a well plotted murder mystery. It was fascinating to learn about the state of medicine in the 19th century and how germs and infection could be just as dangerous as a bullet.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

What can I post on your wall?
Commenting & Posting Guidelines

Welcome to your library on social media!

Pima County Public Library (PCPL) offers blogs and other social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter for educational, cultural, civic, customer service, and recreational purposes. They provide a limited (or designated) public forum to facilitate the sharing of ideas, opinions, and information about library-related subjects and issues.

By choosing to comment or post on our social media accounts, you agree with the following:

Comments and posts are moderated by library staff, and the library reserves the right to remove any that are unlawful or off topic. Posts containing the following may be deleted:
Copyright violations
Off-topic comments
Commercial material/spam/solicitation
Sexual content, or links to sexual content
Threatening or harassing postings
Libelous or other kinds of personal attacks
Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
Content that reveals private, personal information without permission
Vulgar language or content
Comments in support of or in opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures
Content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or other classification

P.S. Protect your privacy. Don't post personally identifying information in these public spaces, including details like your library card number, phone number, or medical information, etc.

Young people under age 18, especially, should not post information such as your school, age, phone number, and address.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)