You May Be "Destined" to Love Millard's "Destiny of the Republic"

I didn’t know how lucky I was to get my hands on an advance reader’s copy of Candice Millard’s The Destiny of the Republic at the American Library Association annual conference until I found myself traveling again a few weeks later.

Always a sucker for a well-written narrative about American history, I carried along the proof copy in my carry-on bag during my next trip.   The book, which hits shelves in September 2011, features a truly intriguing subject: James A. Garfield, an American president who did not seek the office, only to find himself shot by a patronage seeking, wannabe political appointee only weeks after assuming the highest office in the land.  Once I opened the book, I found myself turning page after page, drawn into her rich, flowing narrative.

I knew little about Garfield, less about his assassin, and little about the era in which the story was told - less than 20 years following the end of the Civil War.   In an era rife with patronage appointments to government jobs, raw politics and bitter post-war feelings, the story of the self-made Garfield is remarkable.   Rising from poverty to prominence as Civil War major general, he was then elected to the House of Representatives and then the Senate in 1880.   Then,  when the political frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination – John Sherman, James G. Blaine and the third term seeking Ulysses S. Grant – failed to attract enough support to become the candidate, he was named – in spite of his reluctance – the party’s compromise candidate.  Besting the Democrat Winfield Scott, Garfield would be in office less than 3 months in 1881 before crossing paths with the man whose actions would eventually take his life.

Millard’s narrative and back story for Garfield is far more compelling than my recount.   It’s her ability to take meticulous research and interweave it with the story of assassin Charles J. Guiteau, who thought the country would celebrate his act, which makes this a compulsive, page-turning event.   Just when I didn’t think it could get any better, she infuses the narrative with the next group of historical figures to drive the story – the doctors who cared for the wounded president in the months following the assassination, details  of modern, 19^th Century medicine that could have saved Garfield’s life, and a desperate attempt by inventor Alexander Graham Bell to use a recent breakthrough to help treat the dying president.  Throughout Destiny, there’s the compelling portrait of the long-suffering Garfield, who would live months following Guiteau’s attempt to kill him.

I haven’t read Millard’s River of Doubt, the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s journey down the Amazon, but I’ll have to after reading this.  Evocative and reminiscent of Erik Larson’s remarkable The Devil in the White City, lovers of history are destined to enjoy every minute of her Republic.

-Michael