NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The extraordinary account of James Garfield's
rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history
of his assassination and legacy, from the bestselling author of The
River of Doubt.
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 become 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.