Destiny of the Republicby
Candice Millard
Last night I finished reading Candice Millard's "Destiny of the Republic" which is a book about the assassination of James Garfield. I don't remember learning much about President Garfield in school and really enjoyed finding out more about him. In fact, now I would like to visit his home in Ohio. The book explains how the bullet was not the cause of Garfield's death. He died of infection getting into his wound. I was amazed at the poor sanitary conditions of the white house in this time frame with rats running all around. The historical medical information in the book was very interesting to me too. The doctor that was in charge of President Garfield had a real ego problem. If he had been willing to allow the more modern doctors of the day advise him then there might have been a more positive outcome. The man who shot Garfield tried to say in his defense that it was not the bullet he shot that killed the president but instead it was the poor medical care the president received afterward. Which was true but they hung him anyway. Click on the book title and the author's name to follow the links to more information.
Sounds interesting, but there were vermin running loose in the White House? Guess I'll look into this a bit more, knowing nothing about Garfield or even the time period of his Presidency. I'm wondering if they know about how to combat infections back then. (1880 or 1900 I'll assume.) I can remember the story of an uncle of mine disinfecting a bullet hole in his leg, in the early 1900's, with gunpowder. And it worked. Ah well, the more you learn the more there is to learn. Thanks for posting the interesting book review!
ReplyDeleteQuite the interesting short video. Although I remember that between the time Lincoln was assassinated and Reagan came very close, every President elected in a year beginning with a zero died in office, I can remember almost nothing about Garfield, however. . (Nor even who preceded him..who must have followed Grant. ? ) Wouldn't it be nice to have a photographic memory and to know everything? I guess the odds are tipped against us in that department, however...
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good subject for a book. I didn't remember too much on Garfield either coming out of school .
ReplyDeleteToo much good history is lost in the jumps we have between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt Post-Civil War America was a vioitile place with a lot of government corruption and growing industrial power. Income inequality was also becoming an issue.
Garfield's predecessor was Rutherfold B. Hayes who won the electoral vote while losing the popular vote in a very disputed election much like the one we had in 2000 between Bush and Gore.
There is a large statue to President Garfield in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that was erected I'm guessing after he died, so at the time he must have been in many quarters that favored the old Republican Party. Also a Union general as I recall. The man who shot him was probably mad and likely would have been committed to an asylum like John Hinkley was has this been a modern assasssination.
Thanks for the review here Mary Ellen. I'll look for this one.
Both of you would really enjoy this book for sure. The author credits Garfield's death for re-uniting the country after we were divided with the civil war time period. The Vice President (Arthur?) was not expected to do well at all but due to a handicapped woman who reached out to him by writing him letters of encouragement while Garfield was so ill, the VP rallied and did much better than expected. It made me think of today and how we sometimes encourage people or are encouraged via email or social networking.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes the book says the White House was in very poor repair at the time the Garfield family arrived. In fact, this Arthur VP that took over, the book credits with achieving the badly needed fixing up that it needed.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the old adage that there is no such thing as history; only biographies.
ReplyDeleteI agree Doug. History is all about people's lives.
ReplyDeleteI was going to agree with Doug, too, but since it's also my own name, I thought that that might be redundant. (And this way we can both take credit for Mary Ellen's concurrence! *grin*)
ReplyDelete(heh heh)
Credit given, friend!
ReplyDeleteDanke' meine' Freund. (And I don't even speak German!)
ReplyDelete