The destiny of the republic

a tale of medicine, madness and the murder of a president

Hardcover, 366 pages

English language

Published Nov. 14, 2011 by Doubleday.

ISBN:
978-0-385-52626-5
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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 …

4 editions

Subjects

  • Politics and government
  • Political culture
  • Presidents
  • Assassination
  • Medical care
  • Medical instruments and apparatus
  • Medicine
  • History
  • Biography
  • Power (Social sciences)

Places

  • United States