Ebook Download Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard
Simply attach to the net to obtain this book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard This is why we imply you to make use of and also use the established modern technology. Reviewing book does not imply to bring the published Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard Developed innovation has actually enabled you to read just the soft file of the book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard It is very same. You might not have to go as well as get traditionally in looking guide Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard You may not have adequate time to invest, may you? This is why we provide you the most effective method to obtain guide Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard currently!
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard
Ebook Download Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard
Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard. It is the time to enhance as well as refresh your skill, expertise as well as experience included some home entertainment for you after very long time with monotone points. Operating in the workplace, going to research, learning from examination as well as more tasks might be completed and also you should start brand-new things. If you really feel so exhausted, why don't you attempt new thing? A quite simple point? Reviewing Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard is exactly what we offer to you will certainly understand. And also guide with the title Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard is the recommendation now.
Checking out practice will always lead individuals not to pleased reading Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard, a book, ten book, hundreds e-books, as well as much more. One that will certainly make them really feel satisfied is finishing reading this book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard and also getting the notification of guides, after that finding the other next book to review. It proceeds a growing number of. The moment to finish checking out an e-book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard will certainly be consistently various relying on spar time to spend; one instance is this Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard
Now, how do you recognize where to acquire this e-book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard Don't bother, now you may not visit the publication shop under the bright sun or night to search guide Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard We below consistently help you to find hundreds type of publication. One of them is this publication entitled Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard You may visit the link page supplied in this collection and after that choose downloading. It will certainly not take more times. Just link to your web access and you could access guide Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard on-line. Obviously, after downloading and install Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard, you might not print it.
You could save the soft file of this book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard It will rely on your leisure as well as activities to open and also read this book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard soft data. So, you may not be scared to bring this book Destiny Of The Republic, By Candice Millard almost everywhere you go. Simply include this sot data to your gadget or computer system disk to allow you check out each time and all over you have time.
The extraordinary "New York Times"-bestselling account of James Garfield's rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from bestselling author of "The River of Doubt," Candice Millard.
For a man forced into the presidency, the legacy of James Garfield extended far beyond his lifetime, and "Destiny of the Republic" revisits his meteoric rise within the military and government with meticulous research and intimate focus. Garfield was a passionate advocate of freed slaves, a reformer at odds with Republican power brokers and machine politics, a devoted father, and a spellbinding speech-giver. Four months after taking office he was shot twice by an unhinged office-seeker, Charles Guiteau, and a nation already recently fractured by war shattered, leaving the wounded president at the center of a bitter, behind-the-scenes struggle for power. Examining the medical reform spurred by Garfield's unsanitary medical treatment, and reflecting on the surprising political reform brought on by his former political enemy Senator Roscoe Conkling, "Destiny of the Republic" passionately brings President Garfield's unknown-but-widely-felt legacy into focus.
- Sales Rank: #999748 in Books
- Published on: 2012-10-02
- Format: Large Print
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.00" w x 5.50" l, 1.30 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 597 pages
Amazon.com Review
A Letter from Author Candice Millard
At the heart of Destiny of the Republic is the story of the assassination of President James Garfield. What made me want to write this book, however, was not what I knew about President Garfield—that he had been shot by a deranged man in the summer of 1881—but all that I did not.
In everything I read, I am always looking for the thread of an idea, something that surprises me, and leaves me wanting to know more. To me, that’s the best part of being a writer—following an idea to see where it leads. Most of the time, after doing a little research, I quickly come to a dead end. One day four years ago, however, I found much more than I had ever expected.
While reading a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, I learned that Bell had tried to help save Garfield’s life after the President was shot. I wondered why a man as famous and powerful as Bell, who had invented the telephone just five years earlier, would abandon everything he was working on, put his life on hold, to help any man, even a President. The only way to answer that question, I realized, was to understand exactly what Bell had invented, and, more than that, to find out what kind of man Garfield had been.
After the assassination attempt, Bell devoted himself night and day to inventing something called an induction balance, a type of metal detector, to locate the bullet lodged in the President’s body. The induction balance that Bell used for the final time on Garfield is on display in the National Museum of American History, on the National Mall. What most people don’t know, however, is that the museum also has all of the versions of Bell’s induction balance, in various shapes and sizes, with hanging wires and unfinished edges, that he created while trying to perfect his invention. As I held these fragile instruments in my gloved hands, carefully examining their intricate workings, I could almost see Bell’s mind working, and his heart racing, as the President drew closer and closer to death.
Although, in the end, I would spend three years working on this book, it took only a few days of research to realize what Bell must have known—that President Garfield was not only a tragic figure, but one of the most extraordinary men ever elected President of the United States. A passionate abolitionist, Garfield was not only hailed a hero in the Civil War, but was a fierce champion of the rights of freed slaves. At the same time, he was a supremely gifted scholar who had become a university president at just 26 years of age, and, while in Congress, wrote an original proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
With each diary entry and letter I read, each research trip I took, Garfield came more clearly and vividly to life. It was not until I visited the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., however, that I began to understand the extent of the suffering that Garfield, and the nation with him, had endured. In its archives, in a large metal cabinet with long, deep drawers, the museum keeps the remains of two presidential assassins: John Wilkes Booth and Charles Guiteau, the man who shot Garfield. In the same cabinet, in a drawer just below Guiteau’s, lies a six-inch section of Garfield’s spine, a red pin inserted through a hole in the knobby, yellowed bone to show the path of Guiteau’s bullet. It is impossible to look at this heartbreaking collection without being struck by the fact that this story, now hardly remembered, was once a tragedy so wrenching that it transfixed and terrified an entire nation.
This book is my attempt to step back in time, to understand these men and this moment in history, and to tell a story that should never have been forgotten.
Review
A New York Times Notable Book of 2011
"A staggering tale....Millard digs deeply into the turmoil that got James A. Garfield elected, the lunacy that got him shot and the medical malfeasance that turned a minor wound into a mortal one."--Janet Maslin, Top 10 Recommendations for 2011
"One of the many pleasures of Candice Millard's new book, "Destiny of the Republic," [is] that she brings poor Garfield to life--and a remarkable life it was.....Fascinating... Outstanding....Millard has written us a penetrating human tragedy."
--"The New York Times Book Review"
"A spirited tale that intertwines murder, politics and medical mystery, Candice Millard leaves us feeling that Garfield's assassination deprived the nation not only of a remarkably humble and intellectually gifted man but one who perhaps bore the seeds of greatness.... splendidly drawn portraits.... Alexander Graham Bell makes a bravura appearance"--"The Wall Street Journal"
"Fascinating......Gripping.....Stunning....has a much bigger scope than the events surrounding Garfield's slow, lingering death. It is the haunting tale of how a man who never meant to seek the presidency found himself swept into the White House. . . . Ms. Millard shows the Garfield legacy to be much more important than most of her readers knew it to be."
--"The New York Times
""Crisp, concise and revealing history....Millard has crafted a fresh narrative that plumbs some of the most dramatic days in U.S. presidential history"
"--The Washington Post
"Destiny of the Republic" displays Millard's energetic writing and rare ability to effortlessly educate the listener."--"USA Today"
"""Brings the era and people involved to vivid life..... Millard takes the reader on a compelling fly on-the-wall journey with these two men until that fateful day in a train station when Guiteau shot Garfield..... Millard takes all of these elements in a forgotten period of history and turns them intoR
A "New York Times" Notable Book
"Crisp, concise and revealing history. . . . A fresh narrative that plumbs some of the most dramatic days in U.S. presidential history."
--"The Washington Post
"
"A spirited tale that intertwines murder, politics and medical mystery. . . . Candice Millard leaves us feeling that Garfield's assassination deprived the nation not only of a remarkably humble and intellectually gifted man but one who perhaps bore the seeds of greatness . . . splendidly drawn portraits. . . . Alexander Graham Bell makes a bravura appearance."
--"The Wall Street Journal
"
"Fascinating. . . . Gripping. . . . Stunning. . . . The haunting tale of how a man who never meant to seek the presidency found himself swept into the White House. . . . Millard shows the Garfield legacy to be much more important than most of her readers knew it to be."
--"The New York Times
"Destiny of the Republic" displays Millard's energetic writing and rare ability to effortlessly educate the listener."
--"USA Today
"
"A staggering tale. . . . Millard digs deeply into the turmoil that got James A. Garfield elected, the lunacy that got him shot and the medical malfeasance that turned a minor wound into a mortal one."
--Janet Maslin, Top 10 Recommendations for 2011
"One of the many pleasures of Candice Millard's new book, "Destiny of the Republic," [is] that she brings poor Garfield to life--and a remarkable life it was. . . . Fascinating. . . . Millard has written us a penetrating human tragedy."
--"The New York Times Book Review"
"Brings the era and people involved to vivid life. . . . Takes the reader on a compelling fly on-the-wall journey. . . . Millard takes all of these elements in a forgotten period of history and turns them into living and breathing things."
--Associated Press
"Think you're not interested in James Garfield, our 20th President? Millard's action-packed account of his life and tru
About the Author
Candice Millard, the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "The River of Doubt," is a former editor and contributing writer at "National Geographic" magazine. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and children.
Most helpful customer reviews
563 of 571 people found the following review helpful.
A dead president brought to life
By TChris
James Garfield is most often remembered, if at all, as the president who was assassinated shortly after taking office. Destiny of the Republic brings the dead president back to life. This is not, however, a biography of Garfield. Rather, it is a stirring account of American life and politics during the time of the Garfield presidency, not long after the conclusion of the Civil War, and of a presidential murder. Garfield's early years are sketched out in cursory fashion, his (sometimes troubled) relationship with and eventual devotion to his wife Lucretia is covered in only a few pages, and the death of his youngest child receives little more than a mention. Rather than focusing on Garfield's personal life, Candice Millard devotes her attention to political divisions within the Republican Party (particularly Garfield's battles with New York Senator Roscoe Conkling and the vice president he controlled), as well as Garfield's frustration with the obligations of the office that he had little desire to hold.
The president's assassin is given nearly as much attention as the president. There are times when the book has the feel of a thriller, as the ominous Charles Guiteau weaves in and out of the text, inching himself closer to the president. Millard depicts Guiteau as a con man with delusions of grandeur whose madness was characterized by a growing belief that his plan to assassinate Garfield was divinely inspired.
The assassination occurs at the book's midway point. Millard then treats us to a different kind of political battle, a medical drama about doctors who vie for the opportunity to treat the president and who, ironically, become responsible for his death. Arrogant in their refusal to believe in the existence of germs, American doctors rejected evidence that antiseptic surgical conditions increase a patient's chance of survival. The dirty finger and unwashed probes inserted into Garfield's wound in search of a bullet sealed the president's fate, infecting an injury that Garfield would likely have survived if left untreated. The book concludes with an account of Garfield's autopsy and Guiteau's trial.
Destiny of the Republic succeeds on two levels. First, it is informative. Millard fills the text with interesting facts culled from a variety of primary and secondary source materials, including frequent quotations from contemporaneous news stories and Garfield's diary, to set the scene for Garfield's presidency. We learn enough about the man to understand that he would have made an admirable president. It's interesting to note that Garfield, despite his love of farming, was a scholar, a professor of literature and ancient languages, well versed in mathematics and keenly interested in science, the sort of man who, if running for office today, would likely be branded an "elitist." Garfield's speeches condemning slavery and the unequal treatment of black Americans are eloquent and moving; the book is worth reading for those passages alone.
Second, the book is entertaining. Millard's prose is lively. She captures personalities as if she were writing a novel. She seasons the narrative with humor and creates tension as the events leading to Garfield's encounter with Guiteau unfold. Despite its attention to detail, the narrative moves at a brisk pace.
My sole complaint concerns the attention that Millard gives to Alexander Graham Bell. Granted that Bell's life intersected with Garfield's more than once, and that Bell worked diligently to invent a device that would pinpoint the location of the bullet lodged in Garfield's body, the full chapter and parts of several others devoted to Bell's life seem out of place, as if Millard felt the need to pad her relatively short book with filler. I would have preferred a more thorough discussion of the political aftermath of the shooting. Millard tells us of its unifying effect on a nation that emerged from the Civil War still deeply divided, but provides few facts to support that proposition. A more extensive look at the impact of the assassination on the country would have been more germane than the pages devoted to Bell's life before and after his invention of the telephone.
That criticism aside, Destiny of the Republic is perfect for readers (like me) who want to know about a key moment in American history without being subjected to mind-numbing detail or leaden prose. Millard's book is enlightening and enjoyable. Garfield is a dead president I'm happy to have met.
188 of 192 people found the following review helpful.
How Not to Treat a President
By Just My Op
If the 20th U. S. President, James A. Garfield, had not been so well attended by doctors, he very well might have survived being shot by an assassin. If his doctors, especially the controlling and pompous Dr. Doctor Bliss (no, Dr. Doctor is not a mistype), had been willing to practice Lister's antisepsis techniques, Garfield might have lived. And if the assassin, Guiteau, hadn't been a megalomaniac who thought he was supposed to kill the president, the medical care would never have been needed. As it was, Garfield died slowly and very painfully, and we never were able to benefit from the president he could have been.
As sad as the story is, I loved the telling of it in this book. Author Candice Millard did a wonderful job of tying together the different people most important in this tragedy, and the mood of the times. I would never have known otherwise that Alexander Graham Bell invented a metal detector so that he could try to locate the bullet still in Garfield's body. I needed a bit stronger stomach than I have to read about Garfield's treatment and the progression of his illness. And, 130 years after his death, I am sorry that he did not get the chance to live his full potential as president. I highly recommend this excellent book.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me an advance reader's edition of the book.
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Who's the real killer?
By James Hiller
I didn't know that much about our twentieth president prior to this book. What I did know: that he was Republican, in office for a short amount of time, and was shot and lingered for months afterwards. Turns out, after reading Candice Miller's wonderful new book, "Destiny of the Republic", there was much more to President James Garfield than I first knew. I ended up with a single question after reading the book: Who was the real killer?
The first mention of Garfield that intrigued me recently came in 1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodhart. There, a chapter featured a youngish Garfield, empowered, on the verge of his war greatness, yet somehow innocent and compelling. Had I not read that chapter in 1861, I may have completely skipped over this book. Fortunately I didn't, because Candice Millard's book on his assassination poses many questions, and is incredibly intriguing.
Millard's prose is quick, creating a true page turner. Not overly dwelling in minute details, Millard raises the president from boyhood to presidency quickly, from his hardscrabble existence to his later glories on the battlefield and in the political arena. Garifeld, the man who never wanted to become president, found himself the candidate to break a deadlock in the election. Stepping up to the office, Garfield, saddled with a running mate from a political machine, Chester Arthur, wins and embraces the role of president he would have for a few short months.
We also track the life of the crazed assassin Charles Guiteau, deranged office seeker who was convinced he put Garfield in office with a singular weak speech and then showed up to claim his rightful spot in the administration. Millard doesn't swing Guiteau into a dark maniac, but someone with mental health issues that was loved by his family despite them.
Millard's true villain of the story is the doctor who took over his care (a medical coup, so to speak), Dr. D. W. Bliss, who poo-poohed the pioneering antiseptic work of George Lister, and probed the bullet wound with unwashed hands repeatedly, causing Garfield, who would have likely survived the shot, to transform into an infected being. Millard spares no detail into Garfield's suffering and condition. While Guiteau fired the shot that would lead to Garfield's death, clearly Bliss, unwilling to listen to anyone but himself, led the president to death with his "care".
Other characters in the book include a young Alexander Graham Bell, who created an invention to find the bullet, and Chester Arthur, who recognized his weakness in leadership and was completely horrified at becoming president.
All in all, this was a book that, despite knowing the ending, was a complete and true page turner. If you are into historical fiction, and looking for a great plane/train read, this is your book!
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard PDF
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard EPub
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard Doc
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard iBooks
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard rtf
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard Mobipocket
Destiny Of The Republic, by Candice Millard Kindle
