Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

In Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President  by Candice Millard may give readers their only expose to an assassination of a American President that is all but forgotten, that of James Garfield.

Lincoln and McKinley were shot for ideological reasons.  Both men were viewed as political threats to their respective assassins.  Garfield was the first president shot by a crackpot, a man genuinely mentally ill, who stalked and obsessed over Garfield for several months before shooting him.  In this sense Garfield is the first president to be killed simply because he held this high profile office (yet lessons were not learned… the president would not be under constant guard until after McKinley’s murder).

This book also explorers the series of grievous mistakes made by Garfield's attending physicians.  Garfield was shot at an inopportune time in the history of medicine.  Advances in sterilization existed, but Garfield’s doctors were Old School, and he died of a wound he would have most likely survived had they simply stopped probing his wounds with dirty hands.

This book enshrines a fascinating chapter of American medical and political history in a lively and readable style.