num_pages: 304
description: A New York Times Bestseller!John Flammang Schranka lonely Manhattan saloonkeeperwas obsessed with the 1912 presidential election and Theodore Roosevelt. The ex-presidents extremism and third-term campaign were downright un-American. Convinced that TR would ignite civil war and leave the nation open to foreign invasion Schrank answered what he believed to be a divine summonsbuying a gun and stalking Roosevelt across seven Southern and Midwestern states blending into throngs of supporters. In Chattanooga and Chicago he failed to act. In Milwaukee on October 14 Schrank crossed TRs path againBANG!Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin is the dynamic unfolding account of the audacious attempt on Roosevelts life by a lone and fanatical assailant. Based on original sources including police interrogations eyewitness testimony and newspaper reports the book is above all a fast-paced suspenseful narrative. Drawing from Schranks own statements and writings it also provides a chilling glimpse into the mind of a political assassin. Rich with local color and period detail it transports the reader to the American heartland during a pivotal moment in our history when the forces of progressivism and conservatism were battling for the nations souland the most revered man in America traveled across the country campaigning relentlessly against Howard Taft Woodrow Wilson and Socialist Eugene V. Debs in what historians agree was the first modern American presidential contest.
language: English
title: Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin: Madness, Vengeance, and the Campaign of 1912
publisher: Lyons Press