Title: The destiny of the republic
Description: 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. - Publisher.
Subjects: Politics and government, Political culture, Presidents, Assassination, Medical care, Medical instruments and apparatus, Medicine, History, Biography, Power (Social sciences), New York Times bestseller, nyt:hardcover_political_books=2012-01-28, Garfield, james a. (james abram), 1831-1881, Guiteau, charles julius, 1841-1882, Bell, alexander graham, 1847-1922, Presidents, united states, Medicine, united states, United states, politics and government, 1865-1933, Equipment and Supplies, Attentat, Krankenpflege, Politik, Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer, Medical care, united states, Famous Persons, Homicide, Gunshot Wounds, History, 19th Century
Places: United States, Washington DC, Mentor OH, Philadelphia PA
People: Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Charles Julius Guiteau (1841-1882), James A. Garfield (1831-1881), Joseph Lister, Robert Todd Lincoln, Roscoe Conkling, Chester A. Arthur
Time periods: 1881-1885, 19th century