Destiny of the Republic

Candace Millard is an expert at the historian’s craft. Her dramatic prose read more like a novel and captivated me from the first page.

I also appreciated how she elevated a previously little-known episode and widely forgotten president in American history, opening the door to consider how our national story could have been different had President Garfield’s full potential been realized.

She inspired me to become a writer and continues to inspire me to this day. 

This book of American history was fascinating on several levels.

First, I didn’t know very much about President Garfield, so I was delighted to learn about his background, what a great man he was, and what a great president he might have been. Second, the insane man who shot him was intriguing in his own right, and it’s amazing how much we have learned about him.

Finally, the fact that Garfield’s death was really the result of medical failures—treatments that hadn’t incorporated the most recent scientific discoveries—was shocking.

Destiny of the Republic brings to life an era in American history full of incredible change in science, politics, and culture following the end of the Civil War.

Candice Millard beautifully draws the various threads of the story of the presidency, assassination, and death of James Garfield together in lucid detail. Millard’s dive into the politics around advancements in medical science with Garfield as its unwitting victim is the centerpiece of this fascinating book.

How much do you know about President Garfield, except perhaps the fact that he was assassinated? Neither did I, until I read Candice Millard’s fascinating book, a true-crime story that details how a madman became unhinged and shot Garfield, a good, honorable man who might have gone on to do great things if only his doctors had left him alone. My book is about a lesser-known but equally admirable and patriotic man who came to a cruel and tragic end, and who deserved to have his story told.