So far during the month of July 2019 I've been on a nonfiction kick when it comes to the books I've read. The first book I finished during the month of July was the unabridged audio version of Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard and narrated by Paul Michael.
Listening time for Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard is 9 hours, 47 minutes.
Quite honestly, I didn't know much about James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States of America, until I listened to Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard.
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard is a phenomenal book and I highly recommend it to any one wanting to learn more about President James A. Garfield, presidential history, American history, Charles Guiteau (Garfield's assassin), Alexander Graham Bell, and the appalling medical treatment Garfield received after his assassination attempt, and so much more.
I felt that Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard was riveting from start to finish. It is a very well organized book that covers so much history. It was appalling to learn how much President James A. Garfield suffered after his assassination attempt due to archaic medical treatments and practices of the time. Had Garfield received proper medical treatment, he probably would have survived and not died due to infection.
Paul Michael does an excellent job narrating Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. I highly recommend this book.
The following is the publisher's summary for Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard which I found on Audible:
James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man 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.I am giving Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.
Until my next post, happy reading!!
If I ever make it through the biographies of the Presidents we have had in my lifetime I plan to go back and read about the earlier ones. This will go on my list for Garfield.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll like this book if you enjoy learning about presidential history.
DeleteWonder if the cat was named after him??/ Cheers
ReplyDeleteNo idea.
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