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Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Unavailable
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Unavailable
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Audiobook9 hours

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Written by Candice Millard

Narrated by Paul Michael

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

James A. 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, 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.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.

Total Run Time: 10 hours.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 20, 2011
ISBN9780307939661
Unavailable
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

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Reviews for Destiny of the Republic

Rating: 4.3062659305626605 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a moving look at the people and events surrounding Garfield's presidency and his assassination. Upon finishing the book, it is hard not to conclude that Guiteau, the man who shot him, was correct in insisting that it was really his doctors who killed him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is not a complete biography of James A. Garfield and it is not intended to be. Instead, the author focuses primarily on the events leading to the attempted assassination of Garfield, on July 2, 1881 and the horrible medical care he received, which lead to his death on September 19, 1881. The author looks at the tragic event of 1881 through a 2011 prism, making Garfield's primary care-giver, Dr. Willard D. Bliss, look exceptionally bad. The strong efforts that inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, made to locate the bullet in Garfield is covered in depth, so Bell is one of the primary characters of the book.Of course, the sordid life of the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, is covered in reasonable detail.The political characters of the time, especially Roscoe Conkling, Chester A. Arthur, and James G. Blaine, are covered in some detail. I especially appreciated the new information I learned of President Garfield's private secretary, young (just 23 years old), Joseph Stanley Brown, who later would marry the President's daughter, Mollie.The book is enhanced with the inclusion of 16 pages of photos, with helpful narratives for each photo. The index is excellent and helpful, as is the included 11-page bibliography. End-notes take up 45 of the book's 339 pages.This is one of several books, on Garfield, in my small library. The books are not of equal quality, but I've learned from, and appreciate, each one. I acquired this book on the used-book market and am glad to have read it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    To his countrymen...Garfield was at the same time familiar and extraordinary, a man who represented both what the were and what they hoped to be. Although he had been elevated to the highest seat of power, he was still, and would always be, one of their own. Destiny of the Republic, p. 211By all accounts, James A. Garfield (1831-1881) was well-qualified to serve as the 20th President of the United States. He was an intellectual and devoted family man as well as a firm abolitionist who supported the integration of freed slaves into American society. Unfortunately, four months into his term, he was shot by Charles Julius Guiteau, a frustrated federal office-seeker who grew to believe that God had chosen him to eliminate the president. Destiny of the Republic tells the stories of Garfield's life and assassination, with special attention given to the roles his doctor's arrogance and the unsanitary medical practices of the time played in the hastening of his death. Alexander Graham Bell, who feverishly tried to invent a device for locating the bullet that lodged in the president, plays an important part in the narrative as well. Destiny of the Republic is a compelling read, especially in its second half, after the assassination attempt. Even though it is not a spoiler to reveal that Garfield did not survive, I still found myself wishing that the outcome could have been different for him. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2.5 starsI thought this was meant to be a biography of James Garfield, the 20th president of the U.S. He was shot not long after he took office, and eventually died when doctors didn’t really understand how to help him properly. I listened to the audio. There wasn’t as much biography as I was expecting. Much of it was politics, which I’m not all that interested in, so I tuned out for a good portion of the first ½ to 2/3. I was on my way to giving it only 2 stars. It got much more interesting after he was shot, however. I almost raised my rating to 3 stars (ok), but decided 2.5 was probably more accurate when I took the first ½ into account, as well. What I found much more interesting was the medicine at the time. The suggestion of germs, something no one could see, was new and many doctors didn’t want to believe it. I also found Alexander Graham Bell and his invention, the “induction balance”, quite interesting. This machine he invented was meant to find the bullet that was still lodged into Garfield’s body. This book has actually made me kind of interested in reading more about Bell!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a big fan of small narrative histories like this. Can really bring a distant little-known event into sharp focus. And I love all the little details about life in Washington DC and America in the late 19th Century. Things we take so much for granted now actually haven't been around all that long, have they?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    All I knew, I must confess, was that Garfield was killed by an office seeker, and Arthur took over and was better than everyone feared. This book nicely connect the experiments of Alexander Bell, the germ theories of Lister, and the politics of the time to Garfield's death. When his assassin complains that he fired the bullet, but that the doctors killed him, he was right. American doctors arrogantly refused to believe in germs they could not see and introduced with dirty fingers and instruments the infection that would ultimately kill Garfield. In some ways, it reads like a novel, yet is rich in details from history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a fantastic book about James Garfield, the times he lived in, and his assassination. Candice Millard writes in the style of Erik Larson and The Devil in the White City where she tells the story but also discusses many other aspects of the society at the time. This story features Garfield, his assassin Guiteau, Alexander Graham Bell, Chester Arthur, James Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, and Joseph Lister. It weaves their stories, and others, into the narrative in a way that makes the book read like a novel. I knew little about Garfield's life outside of his experience as a Civil War General, but this book makes me want to read more about him which is a high compliment of the book. Highly recommended as a fun, quick read that you will learn a great deal from.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This gave me a new appreciation for Garfield, and food for thought as to what our country would have been like had he not been murdered. This is a non-scholarly, engaging narrative that touches on the roles of Alexander Graham Bell and Lister as well as brief, understandable explanation of the political environment of Garfield's time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an excellent work of narrative history. Well paced, great use of primary and secondary sources, and a nice job creating voices for all the main characters. Great book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Much better than I expected.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    well written
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was such a fascinating, informative book, and the best part was that it was so readable.
    I learned so much about Garfield and his presidency that I knew nothing about, while at the same time learning about the archaic medical practices during the time period.
    The author's ability to pull together all her research to tell this story was truly a great feat!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What a sad and tragic story. Ms Millard does an excellent job of informing us of the special character of President James Garfield and his entirely too short time on the national political stage.Fascinatingly detailed glimpse into a hidden slice of history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a great man. The kind of history lesson you wish your teacher would have told you.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A reasonably well researched book, I found interest in discovering much about the assassination of Garfield. I was less interested in Geituae but fortunately he was not such a main subject to the book. One character about whom much to much is said is Graham Bell who really had no relevance to the story. I do however find myself wanting a great deal of info that was not in the book, and this is both a recommendation and a lack in the book. What became of Chester Arthur? Would Garfield have been a good president? I liked the honesty of the man, especially his wedding letters. Second of July, 2019.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My wife and I learned a ton from this book. Enjoyed every chapter. The narration was excellent.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Expertly written and engagingly narrated, "Destiny of the Republic" interweaves multiple threads and personalities we all learned about in history class into a narrative that informs, intrigues, and inspires. There are men and women in this story, chief among them James and Lucretia Garfield, previously taken for granted or treated as footnotes of history, who are now fully alive in my mind, garnering my active appreciation and admiration. Well worth your time and attention.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent story telling with wonderful narration. Incredible number of previously unknown facts about James A Garfield and the events surrounding his murder.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Candice Millard is a talented writer. I loved her biography on Teddy Roosevelt and this one was great too. She weaves the stories of Garfield, his assassin Guitea, and Alexander Bell in a fascinating and entertaining manner. I can't wait to read her book on Churchill.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really interesting book! I honestly didn't know much about President Garfield and it's a bit amazing the job he had to do [that he didn't even seek out] and what he went through.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fascinating historical account of James Garfield's life, the era itself, the strange, sad life of Charles Guiteau, (the assassin) and the amazing achievements of Alexander G Bell... all wrapped up in an muderous event, and a medical mystery the President's doctors, especially the arrogant & selfserving Dr. Bliss could not solve. As many other reviews have stated, I didn't know enough about this energetic, intelligent, kind hearted Republican from Ohio, one who never wanted to be President... truly inspiring to read about his rise from rural obscurity & poverty to great academic achievements/leadership & his service in the Union Army during Civil War, etc. Candice Millard is the best sort of historian; all the accolades are much deserved!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author of this James Garfield biography meticulously researched her subject and presented it in an easy to read format. While very interesting information was presented about Alexander Graham Bell and Joseph Lister, their parts felt slightly tangential to the main story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
     I knew he had been shot and lingered, but I enjoyed learning more of the details. Millard makes Garfield a sympathetic character. I didn't know anything about Guiteau. Crazy!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I thought this was a great overview of Garfield's campaign and his death, but was disappointed to find that it did not cover his presidency in any significant way. Although I am now familiar with the convention that saw him nominated for candidacy and the doctors who treated him after the shooting, I know nothing about the policies implemented during the administration. Was unsure why the choice to cover his presidency this way was made. I found that I felt this book lacked a real sense of depth or character. While I was told over and over again that Garfield was an enigmatic and boisterous man, I thought that there was very little direct evidence to sustain this, the book lacked anecdotes (not something I find myself saying very often), and depth of insight on Garfield's character and his thoughts as he was dying. I found that the quotes at the beginning of the chapters offered the most insight of any scholarship in the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This nineteenth-century, post-Civil-War story, like almost all stories, intertwines the lives of several people. Key characters include U.S. President James Garfield, Alexander Graham Bell, Garfield's assassin, Garfield's chief doctor/surgeon, Bell's wife and son, Garfield's wife, and Vice President Chester Arthur.

    An assassin - clearly mentally ill, probably with bipolar disorder - shoots Garfield, but not fatally. His American doctors continually probe the wound with their unclean hands. They did so after Lister made and publicized his finding of the value of antisepsis, but before his reforms were widely adopted in America. The physicians were unable to find the bullet as they assumed it lay on the right side of Garfield's body, where the skin wound lay.

    Bell invented a primitive metal detector to search for the bullet. He was unable to succeed, however, in Garfield's case because Garfield's doctors forbade him from searching on the left side of his body. Nonetheless, Bell's device was used to find bullets well into the twentieth century (when X-Rays became the gold standard).

    The assassin, delusional that the country wanted Garfield dead, ended up trying the insanity defense and failing. He was eventually hung.

    Garfield's autopsy showed the true location of the bullet and the real cause of death - bacterial infection (sepsis) of the blood. His body contained pus vacuoles all over, and pustules covered his skin.

    Nonetheless, this magnanimous event united the Republic as both North and South expressed deep concern about the president's medical course and mourned the president's death. The newly christened President Arthur becomes the most dynamic character in this story. Previously held in suspicion as being cowardly and deferential towards the political machine, he resolves to lead the country as Garfield would. He reasoned that the people of the United States elected Garfield, not him, and they deserved that their will be borne out. Arthur became an effective one-term President who led meaningful (but not ambitious) reforms of the corrupt "Spoils" system that previously buoyed his career.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Candice Millard writes really well and I've read comparison of this book to Erik Larson Devil in the white city, which I would agree is a good comparison. The book is relatively short and contains good photo illustrations and is well referenced and reads quickly. I read an unabridged ebook and was surprised that I had come to the end of the text at about two thirds through the file - the rest was notes, bibliography, figures, etc. The book follows multiple threads - the life and assassination of Garfield, the life of giteau, the assassin, and also the scientific and medical theme mainly centered on Bell and his induction balance metal detector but also the malpractice of Bliss, the main doctor and to some extent Lister and the general medical schools of thought at the time regarding sterile practices. Excerpts of letters helped to make the book lively but I would have appreciated longer excerpts at times and was engrossed in the book so would have been fine with a longer overall length.Millard paints a positive picture of Garfield and at the end interesting, attributes his death with the downfall of the spoils system which is soonish left to blame for the ultimate cause of allowing someone like giteau to occur and also attributes the nation's mourning as a unifying force between country's regions. She also paints a picture of Chester Arthur as one who grows substantially through the circumstances thrust upon him though of still limited effect. Overall it's an interesting and quick read and I would recommend it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book about President Garfield. How he became President unwillingly, his assasin and the awful medical care he got before antiseptic procedures where adopted. Well written and very insightful
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Destiny of the Republic-Candice Millard, author; Paul Michael, narratorMillard has written a book that desperately needed to be written about a President whose brief time in office is not well known, a President who only served the United States in that capacity for less than a year, but whose impact was greater than I had realized. As the author told his story, she included so many interesting and pertinent facts about the time in which he lived, that it made the book that much more enlightening. She made Garfield come to life by humanizing him. She painted him as a wonderful family man who was devoted to his children and to his wife, above all. She portrayed him as a brave fighter who stoically suffered with his mortal injury, rarely complaining and always remaining optimistic in the face of his pain. He was soft spoken and well educated. He was a gentleman who might have accomplished much more with his life had he had the opportunity.James Garfield never campaigned to be President, but was truly chosen spontaneously by the deadlocked convention, quite unexpectedly, as he himself waited to nominate General John Sherman for the position.. He faced many of the same political obstacles that our current President Trump faces with opposition forces in his own party thwarting many of his efforts. At the time of his Presidency, there was little thought given to his personal security, although it was only a dozen years since President Lincoln had been assassinated. No one believed there would be any reason for his life to be endangered. Garfield lived during a time of great and new inventions. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and telegraph and was working on an induction balance machine that could locate a bullet that was lodged in a shooting victim’s body. He wanted, desperately to locate the one that was somewhere within President Garfield’s own body. Joseph Lister made inroads into wound treatment by introducing the concept of antisepsis, although he faced tremendous opposition, as well, with many doctors disregarding his discovery. This same time period also spawned a maniac named Charles J. Guiteau. Guiteau was unsuccessful in all of his attempts at legitimate work. He was more of a con man than an honest man and cheated many people out of their money, borrowing and not repaying his debts, leaving restaurant and hotel bills unpaid, believing he deserved what he took from them as a man of G-d. He believed in himself, unlike so many others who recognized his behavior as seeming insane. Guiteau had delusions of grandeur and truly believed that one day he would make his mark on the world. He often went to the White House and petitioned Garfield’s administration for a position, but he was never granted one, having been recognized as a bit peculiar. He became more unhinged, and he conceived of the idea that G-d wanted him to murder the President in order to pave the way for the opposition to take power. He was sure the world would recognize this act as heroic and would reward him with a government position for performing such a service. He set about making plans to murder the President. His plan was simple and cold-blooded, but when he finally committed the act of shooting Garfield, he was not as calm and collected about it as he had been leading up to the event. He ran, but was caught. He loved his notoriety, though, and thought surely he would be pardoned when Vice President Chester Arthur took over. He really believed that he would be beloved by all.As it turned out, the wounds to Garfield were not in and of themselves life-threatening, but instead it was the infection that did him in, and that infection was caused by doctors who disregarded the need for a germ free environment for the wound. So, although there were methods of treatment that might have saved his life, few doctors, foremost among them was Dr. Bliss, believed in unseen germs. They did not recognize that germs were the reason for the injury’s grave infections and the inability to heal. My favorite quote in the book is “ignorance is Bliss”, for indeed, ignorance coupled with arrogance were perfect descriptions of the man who was probably most responsible for the brief time of Garfield’s life!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I was a boy, some close relatives moved to Mentor, Ohio, which meant that I visited them there for many years afterward. On the main highway through town there stood Lawnfield, President James A. Garfield's home and library. For all my days in Mentor, I never visited. Who, after all, was Garfield, but one of those blur of post-Civil War presidents who never amounted to more than footnotes in American history texts. Besides, Garfield was assassinated before even serving a year, so of what significance could he possibly be?

    I now regret I never spent any time at Lawnfield.

    On the timeline of American history, Garfield may remain hardly more than a foot note. But in reading this book, I came to appreciate just what a figure he was. He was admirable in so many ways--a scholar with a keen sense of justice who had the presidency thrust upon him--and had he lived, he may have even been one of our great presidents. But it was not to be, because a delusional nutcase, Charles Guiteau, shot him.

    The true tragedy, however, is that Guiteau's imposed wound did not kill Garfield. It's fair to say that his doctors killed him. Not believing in the principles of antisepsis, they probed Garfield's wounds with unwashed, unprotected probes and fingers, setting him up for infection which led him to a slow, torturous death.

    The drama is told well by Candice Millard. It may be difficult to convince people that Garfield is well worth remembering, but his story carries power to stand the test of time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you look up "delusional" in the dictionary, there's a full–page, full–color picture of Charles Guiteau. And if you look up "unfulfilled potential" in my personal dictionary, with this book James Garfield's picture took the place of JFK's. President James Garfield is one of those Commanders in Chief no one seems to know much about. By which I mean I never knew much about him, until PBS aired an hour-long documentary about his death, which because of its proximity also took in his entire presidency. (But seriously, the name "Garfield" is almost certainly going to mean "cat" to most people, not "president".) I was so utterly horrified by the story – and fascinated, in a look-how-the-train-wreck-twisted-the-metal way – that I went looking for this book. The short version: it's an excellent book about an extraordinary man, and with a first-rate narration. It's a great book. Depressing, horrifying, heart-rending, and often nauseating – but really great. Being me, there's a long version. I could spend a couple thousand words just on what might have been had Garfield lived and served out a full term, or probably two. He was kind of amazing – how is he so unknown? "Big-hearted and cheerful, Garfield was nearly impossible to resist. Throughout his life, he was just as likely to give a friend, or even a determined enemy, a bear hug as a handshake." He deserves a far greater memorial than an orange cartoon cat. This book is a good beginning. A big part of this story is the literally skin–crawling discussion of what anti–antisepsis medical practitioners practiced… Suddenly time travel is even less attractive. Never mind a dearth of antibiotics, Reconstruction-era racial strife, outhouses, and a complete lack of women's (or children's) rights – this exploration of how a bullet wound was treated in a man who held the highest office of the land and could, theoretically, expect the best medical care possible… this was enough to keep me from ever contacting Max and company in Jodi Taylor's St. Mary's series with a view toward tagging along on a trip backward. Whatever I might sometimes feel about the deficits of this day and age, thank you, I'd like to stay here please. Because here, and now, no one would need to consider inserting a really bright light bulb into my body to find a bullet. No one would keep feeding me, even after the pattern was established that I would only shortly vomit everything back up (which must have been hellishly painful to the wound on the back, for starters. No one would pour fermented mare's milk down my throat, or inject beef broth into other orifices… No. Every time I start being wistful about the manners and morals and other shiny things about any past age, I'll think of the stubborn insistence of so many medical practitioners that hand-washing wasn't just unnecessary but probably harmful to patients, and … no, really, I'll stay put. (See, the Doctor has the TARDIS. And he's the Doctor. I'll go with him anywhere, anytime.)I haven't been fond of Robert Lincoln since reading [book:The Emancipator's Wife]; that book's description of his treatment of his mother – who, I grant you, was a couple of McNuggets shy of a Happy Meal and, shall we say, challenging to deal with – left me fuming and heartsick. Now I learn that after Garfield was shot he rushed out in his carriage and picked up Dr. "Filthyhands" Bliss to come and see to the wounded president; he had tried (unsuccessfully, it may not be entirely fair to remind the reader) to save President Lincoln. Without the ham–handed (filthy–handed) efforts of this exemplar of the medical profession, the consensus is that Garfield might would surely have lived. Even apart from the academic or creepy connection Robert Lincoln had to not one, not two, but three assassinations – nope. I still don't like him. So many good, forward–thinking doctors tried so hard to stop Bliss … And were shouted down. Or just ignored. And my mind continues to be blown that the Secret Service wasn't officially assigned to protect the president for another twenty years. It's a little shocking that even more incidents didn't occur. As I mentioned earlier, I found the story heart-breaking. Garfield's death– devastated his family– devastated the country– cut short what might have been a brilliant presidency– cut short what surely would have been a brilliant lifeHowever, it also– forced Chester Arthur to become a better man, and a good president (with a lot of help from Julia Sand– brought the country together more than it had been since before the Civil War– helped finally quash Roscoe Conkling, who needed quashing so very badly– raised real awareness that no, really, germs are real and can be prevented from killing a patient if only certain levels of cleanliness are observed– drove Alexander Graham Bell to develop an invention which, while (because of Bliss) it was unable to do a thing for Garfield, would go on to prevent discomfort and even death for thousandsI find it hard to swallow that Garfield's death might have benefited humanity more than the rest of his life might have … but it might be true. One quote I made note of: "...traveling from town to town and asking for votes was considered undignified for a presidential candidate..."I weep softly for the wisdom of a lost age.