First published 2011
James Garfield climbed from crushing poverty to the presidency through brilliance, battlefield courage, and political reform. Four months into his term, Charles Guiteau shoots him at a train station. The bullet lodges in Garfield's back but doesn't kill him immediately. What follows becomes a national crisis that exposes America's fragile post-Civil War unity. Doctors treat the president with outdated methods that worsen his condition. Political rivals circle like vultures, fighting for control of his administration and the country's direction. Meanwhile, Alexander Graham Bell races against time to build a device that can locate the bullet inside Garfield's body. The president becomes the center of three battles: medical, political, and technological. Millard reconstructs this forgotten drama through meticulous research, showing how one deranged man's failed assassination attempt triggered a struggle that would determine America's future.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-drama, race-against-time
Setting: America
Period: 19th-Century
339 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday