Garfield

by Allan Peskin

This first full-scale biography of our twentieth president in over fifty years reflects not only a renewal of interest in Garfield the man as the centennial of his inauguration nears, but in the Gilded Age of American politics in which he played so influential a role. Moving from the battlefield to Congress before the end of the Civil War, Garfield had a hand in almost everything of national importance for two decades, the years of peace, Reconstruction, and industrialization. As a party leader he, along with his friend James G. Blaine, forged the modern Republican Party into the instrument which would lead the United States into the twentieth century, and though his presidency was cut short by an assassin's bullet, he succeeded in rescuing the office from the shadows of Johnson and Grant, elevated it above the Congress, and began the accretion of presidential power that has lasted to our own day.

To the public James A. Garfield was a beloved nineteenth-century success story, the self-made man climbing from poverty to national leader, the last of the "log cabin" presidents. But the man behind the public portrait was much more complex, even contradictory. He was a pacifist turned soldier, an educator turned politician, a preacher turned economist, a man of essentially literary tastes cast in the role of party chieftain. Continually racked by self-doubts, he nevertheless was so convinced of his destiny that he never actively sought any office -- and never lost an election.

Allan Peskin's masterful biography combines the public and the private Garfield in a smooth-flowing narrative that will fascinate the general reader as well as enlighten the scholar. The Garfield story includes the account of the Ohio canal boy who worked his way through college -- and later became president of that same Hiram College. It is the story of the minister who led Union troops through a blundering campaign in the Kentucky wilderness and emerged a national hero and a general. It is the romance of the diffident husband who, some time after the wedding and somewhat to his surprise, fell in love with his wife. It is the high drama of Gilded Age politics, disputed elections, and narrow victories during the era in which the modern, industrial, continent-spanning United States was being forged and many of its social and political attitudes taking shape. Finally, it is the story of assassination at the hands of a religious fanatic before the character of the president could truly be tested in office.

From these rich materials a fully-rounded portrait of Garfield and his time emerges. He rises above the image of good-natured backslapper and forgotten -- if "martyred" -- president to which history has relegated him. He becomes a figure worth the major treatment Dr. Peskin has accorded him.

Genres: Presidents, Biography, History, Nonfiction, American History, Us Presidents, Politics

716 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1978

About the author

Allan Peskin was a professor of History at Cleveland State University from 1962 until 2000. Peskin earned his Bachelor of Arts, MA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University.

Reviews

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 718 page book and only a few pages dealt with Garfield's presidency. His early months in office consisted of trying to build his cabinet. Garfield had a heck of a time figuring out who he wanted. Some candidates declined his cabinet offer, some Garfield invited and then took back his offer; it was a mess. And then he got shot. I admit I felt sad. After reading the previous 100's of pages I felt an attachment to him. I learned a lot about the in's and out's of Congress when reading about Garfield's lengthy tenure as a US Representative.

I never did figure out whether or not the author, Allan Peskin, liked his subject. In other presidential biographies I've read I could figure it out. For instance, anyone can easily tell Ron Chernow really liked Grant. Peskin was straight forward with his facts and non-judgemental. (Except when writing about Roscoe Conkling.) Like any human, Garfield had his foibles. (I was a trifle taken aback when reading that the married Garfield had an affair with a woman in NY during the Civil War. Garfield was a citizen general (not West Point trained) and got bored while awaiting his assignment. Garfield's poor wife had a hard time with her husband in the first years of their marriage. Thankfully he eventually fell in love with her.) Peskin reported Garfield's less than savory moments without comment or interpretation. I did not find this off-putting.

I'm debating whether to read "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard before moving on to Chester A. Arthur. I don't want to forget the details of what I've learned about Garfield so far. Although, believe it or not, I'm chomping at the bit to read about Arthur. Apparently he was an interesting psychological enigma. This is a happy dilemma; right now I'm thoroughly enjoying my US presidential biography project.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2014/...

“Garfield: A Biography” by Allan Peskin was published in 1978 and was the first comprehensive biography of James A. Garfield in four decades. Ironically, this biography was followed shortly by the posthumous publication of Margaret Leech’s own study titled “The Garfield Orbit.” Peskin was a long-time professor of American history at Cleveland State University.

Comprehensive in scope and liberally infused with penetrating character insight, Peskin’s biography of James Garfield is simply excellent. Despite its length (over 600 pages of text) it proves highly readable, extremely informative and very rarely tedious.

What Peskin’s biography lacks in entertainment value (which isn’t much despite its age and heft) it more than makes up for with its excellent analysis of Garfield’s fascinating personality and life choices. Undoubtedly helpful to Peskin’s cause is that Garfield is an interesting, if inwardly-focused, subject in an era replete with oversized personalities and political friction.

During the course of this chronological study Peskin carefully analyzes and dissects this multifaceted teacher, preacher and politician. The author’s overall opinion of Garfield is clearly favorable, but his study is remarkably well balanced and Peskin frequently takes his subject to task for a variety of failures and flaws.

This biography is particularly interesting in its coverage of Garfield’s pre-presidency including his Civil War service and his nearly two decade Congressional career. Treatment of the Republican nominating convention (at which Garfield dramatically emerged as the party’s compromise nominee) and his presidency were solid but less exceptional.

Lacking in Peskin’s biography is more complete coverage of Garfield’s family life – though the reader quickly suspects that Garfield’s life itself lacked meaningful work/family balance. In addition, the author rarely shakes his firm focus on Garfield so there was less explanation of Garfield’s actions within the context of his era than I would have liked.

Nowhere is Peskin’s focus on Garfield more evident than during the Civil War years. Here Peskin follows Garfield’s every action during his military service but the major themes of the war itself are rarely made clear. Garfield could just as easily have been participating in a series of Indian skirmishes. And once Garfield leaves the battlefield for Congress the Civil War hardly seems to exist at all.

Finally, Peskin’s biography undoubtedly runs longer than needed. Happily it is full of rich detail and acutely interesting observations and is almost never dull or exhausting. But it requires a significant investment of time by the reader for a president of only modest historical consequence. His term in office, after all, only lasted 200 days.

Overall, “Garfield: A Life” is an extremely successful and worthwhile biography of a president unfamiliar to most Americans. Comprehensive in scope, thoughtful in its organization and penetrating in its insights, Allan Peskin’s biography of James Garfield is an extremely worthy presidential biography and deserves a far broader following than it currently enjoys.

Overall rating: 4¼ stars

[Aaron Million · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is not a large collection of James Garfield biographies to choose from, mainly due to lack of interest in our 20th President. As Peskin writes at the end, Garfield quickly faded into the distant memory of public consciousness - eventually being lumped in and confused with several other late 19th century, facial hair-sporting, lackluster presidents. While this does seem to be a somewhat harsh verdict rendered by history, Garfield did not particularly distinguish himself - positively or negatively - during his career in Congress and did not have enough to time to establish any lasting legacy as President.

Peskin is generally even-handed and fair in his treatment of Garfield, neither excessively praising him for good deeds nor dwelling on less savory aspects of his character. At times, it seems that he could have taken Garfield further to task for possessing the ability to so easily discard people who had helped him. One major example of this is his relationship with General William Rosecrans. Rosecrans did a great deal to further Garfield's Civil War military career, which ultimately saw Garfield rise to the rank of Brigadier General. Yet, when Rosecrans presided over a disastrous Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, Garfield went out of his way to distance himself from Rosecrans, and tried to walk a fine line between blaming Rosecrans but not criticizing him.

Garfield also had a disturbing consistency of disliking the Presidents who came before him. For reasons that Peskin takes his time in spelling out, he distrusted and did not personally like Lincoln, only reluctantly and unenthusiastically supporting him for reelection in 1864. He grew to loathe Andrew Johnson. And, again for reasons not especially ever made clear by Peskin, he has a healthy dislike of Ulysses Grant. This seemed odd that Peskin never really addresses exactly why Garfield disliked him. And finally, even though they were both from Ohio, his relations with Rutherford Hayes were cool and distant.

Garfield was not a faithful - and indeed for many years not a loving - husband to his wife, Lucretia. While Peskin explores their relationship, she seems to somewhat disappear as time goes on. Garfield continued to (at least somewhat) oddly trust fellow politician James G. Blaine even after Blaine repeatedly double-crossed him on various matters both personal and professional.

Peskin does a good job in detailing the machinations of the 1880 election that saw Garfield come out of relative obscurity to get the Republican nomination. He also does fine work in exploring how Garfield came about choosing his Cabinet officers and how messy that process ultimately became for him. Peskin clearly did his research on Garfield's brief presidency. His coverage of Garfield's assassination is adequate. However, I much preferred Candice Millard's political thriller Destiny of the Republic. She made it eminently more interesting, and delved much deeper into the ignorant and fatal behavior of Garfield's doctors, particularly Dr. Bliss. He concludes the book with a brief look at what became of Garfield's family and political friends and enemies, which is welcome as many times a presidential biography abruptly concludes with the subject's death.

Grade: C

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a struggle to overlook the editing mistakes in this edition, starting with the "erratum" for page 444, but the story itself was enjoyable enough. I was disappointed with how little time Peskin spent on the election of 1876, which wasn't decided until a couple of days before the inauguration of Rutherford Hayes, because Representative Garfield was on one of the teams investigating election results. However, Peskin made up for it with his thorough coverage of the 1880 Republican convention, a whirlwind of drama and surprises. But I could never understand if I was supposed to believe that Garfield was his own man, or if he was weak and overly influenced by others. In the end, though, I was left with an appreciation for Garfield the man, and regret for what might have been in his presidency.

[Bryan Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who worked at Garfield's home in Ohio, this is the standard to read.

[Stacey Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

"All I want to do is stay home and read this biography of James Garfield!" said no one ever unless they were reading this one by Allan Peskin, and then there is nothing else to say about this book. It's wonderful!

I'm engaged in a project to read a biography of each president in order, so I have entered what I call the "discount" presidents of the late 19th century, starting with Hayes and extending until I get to TR at the beginning of the twentieth century, so I wasn't sure about picking up a 700-plus-page biography of Garfield. My husband, who bought it for me as a gift, was reluctant as well, but the reviews were so positive, he went for it. I'm so glad he did, and I wish every biography of a U.S. president, discount or "brand name" would be so well written.

Peskin is objective, his research is thorough, and he presents a detailed, but relevant picture of the life of fascinating and flawed man without excusing Garfield's weaknesses or hyping his strengths. The book also is a wonderful way to access the interesting history of the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Garfield, who was born on the frontier in Ohio, lost his father at 2 and worked hard at school to advance himself (he had a mysterious family situation with a stepfather who divorced his mother after she left him and returned to the Garfield family farm and refused to stay married to him--and Garfield hated him for the rest of his life). He was raised in a frontier religious tradition of the Disciples, and attended a school, Hiram, sponsored by them, before going to college in the east. After finishing, her returned to Ohio and taught at Hiram. He was a talented and deliberative orator, and many thought he may become a preacher. He loved his studies, and his whole life, he maintained an academic project, such as translating Horace, to relax him and distract him from political worries. He made something of a name for himself as a soldier in the Civil War, though Peskin is clear that Garfield wasn't U.S. Grant by any means.

Garfield's family life was also interesting. He had a stormy beginning of his relationship with his wife, Lucretia, and had an affair (from which he was forced to go ask the other woman for his letters back at the beginning of his political career), and they spent very little time together in the early years. But once they made a home together in Washington at the beginning of his 17 years in Congress, they grew close and built a loving and close-knit family.

Of course, Garfield is interesting because he was one of our assassinated presidents. But his whole life is a reflection of the nation at the time. As an individual he had a strange belief about himself, that he was destined for greatness and that this destiny precluded his overtly trying for things. At the time, political candidates didn't strive for office; people put them forward and advanced them. When Garfield was nominated for president, U.S. Grant told him to go home and be quiet and write no letters. This worked well with Garfield's tendency to recede from battle where ambition was concerned, but sometimes he was perceived as weak or lacking will.

One of the positive aspects of reading the biographies in order is that I get to see issues emerge and play out through multiple administrations. The Civil Service Reform that Grant advanced and Hayes had to deal with as well was what I thought killed Garfield, as I believed his assassin was a disgruntled office seeker (presidents had to deal directly then with so many requests for patronage by people wanting jobs--it consumed Garfield almost as much the Republic party feuds among the stalwarts supporting Grant, and the Blaine and Conkling factions). But Peskin demonstrates that this was not true at all. Garfield's assassin was clearly an insane narcissist who thought he would be thanked by the nation for destroying Garfield.

Garfield's death was particularly excruciating, and Peskin reports this with appropriate detail as well. After Garfield was shot in the back at the railway station, he lingered for 80 days, before blood poisoning finally killed him.

What Peskin does so well is chooses the telling details and examples (from writings, speeches, etc.) to illustrate Garfield's personality, really bringing him, the nation and the time period lie for the reader. I was seriously sad when this book ended, and not just because of the president's painful and sad death, but because it was such accessible and clear prose that didn't shy from complexity. Peskin is a master biographer, and I'd like to request that he also write biographies of Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley!

[Regina Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you think of great presidential biographies, one on James Garfield doesn't typically come to mind. More often one on Washington, Adams, or Lincoln is likely does. However, Peskin has provided what is one of the more readable biographies I've read in quite some time. Because the subject is not on one of the acknowledged greats, it makes the work even more important.

Peskin portrays Garfield as a man who develops deep feelings for the people around him, is easily influenced by them, but can easily become disillusioned as well. Secondly, in what modern pundits would classify as a flip-flopper, Peskin demonstrates that at times Garfield holds beliefs that are inspirational and admirable, as, according to Peskin, were ahead of times. This is most evident in his early support of rights for freed slaves, being even more vocal and more progressive than Thaddeus Stevens and supporting severe legislative repercussions for Rebels. However, as time separates Garfield from events of the war and the North becomes "bored" with the plight of freed slave, his ardor cools. But, where Peskin shines is in his ability to bring to life the dramatic events of the convention of 1880 and the chaos of pulling together an administration of an "accidental president". For me personally, as a member of a congregation that is often tied to the "Restoration" movement, it was satisfying to read about Garfield's early years as a preacher (the only former preacher to become president) and the movement within the context of American history. But, finally and most importantly, is Perskins' treatment of the subject. It is rare to find a biographer that comes across as objective. Often, a biographer either loves or detests his/her subject. Peskin takes pains to stop and analyze both Garfield's strengths and weaknesses.

However, there are some incredibly frustrating aspects of the work. First, people and concepts that seem important to Garfield early in the work seem to drop off the scene without any explanation. Further, while he may be good at analyzing Garfield, he is woefully lacking in analyzing how Garfield comes to certain conclusions in his beliefs. For a man who changed stances so dramatically this analysis was warranted.

Overall, were anyone to become interested in learning more about the short-lived president, I would not hesitate to recommend Peskin's work.

[Brian Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good man, an intelligent politician, one who will unfortunately best be remembered for having his Presidency cut short after about 100 days by an unstable assassin's bullet.

I'm not sure if Garfield would have been an effective Gilded Age President. He had the material and character to be one, but I feel like the era's corruption would have halted any progress. Roscoe Conkling already was thwarting his progress - and for conspiracy theorists, had everything to gain by his death - and it may be possible that this would have been one of those 4 year 1 term Presidencies that succumbed to that division.

If you're looking for the full biography of this President, this is the book. The poor guy didn't have a chance. Another great book on this topic, Garfield's brief Presidency and assassination, is Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I would lean towards that book but this one is for completists for sure.

[James Ruley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peskin is a great storyteller. In this work, he makes Garfield come alive with rich detail and contextualization of the world Garfield lived in. Although sympathetic to Garfield, Peskin is not afraid to let his flaws show—his weak marriage, his political naïveté, and his ego. However, Peskin does a great job showing you Garfield’s tender heart and passionate adherence to principle. Although Garfield was president for such a short and tumultuous time, this book makes me wonder what a longer tenure would have looked like.

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

It saddens me that I would have never discovered this book had I not set out to read at least one biography of every U.S. President. Why would anyone, apart from a distant relative, really want to read a book on James Garfield? Looking at his life and presidency, it was rather dreary and highly inconsequential, yet Allan Peskin manages to write an incredibly engaging account of a man who really never comes across as exciting nor stimulating. On that note, just who the heck is Allan Peskin? I had to search rather deep on Google just to find minute information on the man (sadly, after much digging, I found out that he recently passed away). So it’s almost a double whammy that an unknown author can write a book on a minor president and have it be incredibly engaging. One wishes that Peskin would have penned more volumes on more notable figures.

Even if you have heard of James Garfield, you probably are unaware of the name Charles Guiteau. You’re probably also unaware that Garfield’s presidency lasted a mere four months. This is because Guiteau assassinated Garfield very early on during Garfield’s tenure in office. At the risk of sounding morbid, this is about the most exciting thing that seemed to happen in Garfield’s life. He simply wasn’t that dynamic of an individual. He lived during a time when candidates were chosen by delegates in smoky rooms of national conventions. Garfield is chosen as the 1880 candidate mainly as a compromise. None of the other candidates are really up to the job. It’s not that there isn’t anyone else qualified, it’s just that there isn’t anyone else where there is any sort of consensus as to who can win the big election come November.

So Garfield is chosen. He basically doesn’t want the job, but being the good soldier, he rises to the challenge. On a related note, it was considered improper and uncouth for presidential candidates to do their own campaigning. So Garfield mainly stays at home during the presidential race. Such simpler times.

Speaking of being a ‘good soldier’, Garfield was also a general in the Union army during the Civil War. Again, most don’t know that – nor even know his name when historians discuss the great battles. Still, the author does a superb job of making the military years come alive in this book, even though there really wasn’t that much interesting to say.

After reading this book, I think I would describe the words ‘introverted’ and ‘cerebral’ to describe James Garfield. He was definitely the intelligent sort, and the only time where this book seemed to get a bit bogged down was when it went into detail of Garfield’s younger years – first as an apt student, and later as a teacher. James Garfield had a lot of wit and musings during this time of his life, yet it became a bit of chore to read about his constant observations and cogitations of his younger years.

After the Civil War is when Garfield goes into politics, and each chapter of this portion of the book is dedicated to each of his terms in office. Again, his term as a U.S. Congressmen isn’t very eventful, yet one imagines that the reason he keeps getting reelected is because people prefer inelegance to flair. Politics wore out the average voter in those days as well.

He also seemed a bit of a moody fellow. He seemed more miserly than happy, didn’t seem particularly close to his family, and seemed to always be suffering from some sort of illness that seemed more suited for someone much older than him at the particular stage of his life.

Perhaps it was the author’s ability to detail the time period and the events so well that made this such a rewarding read. Although Garfield didn’t seem to have much excitement emulating from himself, there certainly was a lot of calamity in the current times of politics, so one feels as though the time and money spend on this book was well spent.

This book was written in 1978. It seems that any time a biography of well-known individual is written, a new one is written every quarter of a century or so for some reason. I’ve never quite figured this out. Maybe more information about the subject becomes available over time? Somehow, though, I’m not sure we’ll ever see another biography of James Garfield. That’s quite all right, though. This book was wonderful and needs no substitute.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

American presidents have received a diverse range of biographical attention that in both quality and quantity usually reflects the length of their term in office and the impact of their presidency. In this respect Allan Peskin's biography of James Abram Garfield stands out as virtually unique: a first-class biography of one of the briefest occupants of the presidency, which offers a thorough understanding of the man based on a comprehensive examination of his life and career.

Born in Ohio, Garfield attained success almost in spite of himself. Drawn to the sea, a period of illness cut short an early career as a canal driver, which led him to more academic pursuits. A member of the Disciples of Christ, he made the most of the educational opportunities they provided, returning after college to teach at the school he attended as a youth. Aided by his gifts as a public speaker, Garfield began a career in politics that was cut short by his decision to serve in the Union Army, where he rose to the rank of major general. While still serving he won election to Congress, where he eventually emerged as the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Peskin sees Garfield as a capable figure, yet one whose ambition was tempered by a degree of fatalism about the outcome. Thus while serving as John Sherman's floor lieutenant at the 1880 Republican convention, he did nothing to discourage consideration of himself as a "dark-horse" candidate. A narrow election won him the presidency, and he had only just resolved the party struggle over patronage when he was shot by a deranged assassin and suffered a slow descent towards death.

Peskin's book is easily the best biography of Garfield, thanks to its combination of judicious analysis and enjoyable writing. He is blunt in his assessment of Garfield, going past the superficial explanations to provide a convincing cataloging of his strengths and weaknesses. The result is an excellent biography, one of the best ever written about a president and one that likely will stand the test of time for decades to come.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts of this book were really good. Example: the Republican convention in Chicago in 1880 where Garfield somehow got the nomination, a shameless event filled with drunks and back-room shenanigans. Example: the description of Garfield's assassin, Guiteau--a fascinating, deranged man who actually has a tiny bit of my sympathy because he had a messed-up childhood that made him this perfectly crazy murderer. Also, this author illuminates the relationships and political goings-on fairly well. But, I had to deduct a star for some weird editorial mistakes and things...maybe unfair of me, but they were noticeable. Definitely worth a read!

[David Oskutis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography took me a lot longer to get through than most, and I can't exactly explain why. The writing is pretty straight forward, the research is done quite well (using a lot of letters and diary entries, and documented newspaper articles, both those for and against events and people), so a relatively clear picture of Garfield emerges. However, I think that's what slowed me down. He was quite a contradictory man himself. He would often say things in public, contradict and say other things in private, and when given a choice to bring the two together, say or do a third thing altogether. He was a pacifist who became a war General (and often criticized his superiors for their lack of action and fighting...but then refused to act himself when given the opportunities). Most of his political career is spent in Congress, and it seems every other page at this point is filled with him getting into a scandal, and then having to wash the scandal away to "win" his reelection...only to later find out that in most of his runnings, he ran unopposed (so he would have won anyway, even if the scandal wasn't washed away). At some points, Garfield reminded me of a first version Ted Kennedy, whose home state and district simply elected him over and over again due to name recognition alone. He was known for giving quite inspiring speeches, however, so maybe a few newspaper prints of his words back home were enough to carry the election. As for the Presidency, Garfield was contradictory again...he was incredibly harsh on Lincoln, almost numb regarding Johnson (despite everyone in his party upset over Johnson's reversal of everything Lincoln had planned), driven nearly to hatred of the Grant administration, and then fixated on the folly of Hayes's term in office. It seemed whichever way his party was leaning, when it came to the President, Garfield simply didn't like any of it (even if it agreed with him and his party outside of the White House). Often times, Garfield came off as quite an unlikeable character in person, yet a hero personified in the press and amongst his friends. He even said he found no attraction to his wife at one point, but married her out of social necessity (only later to say he had fallen in love with her, and she was his finest confidant through later years). And, in a twist of fate you just can't make up, Garfield wasn't even running for President when he got the Republican party nomination. He was backing another candidate, and gave such good speeches about that candidate, that when a stalemate had been reached, someone else threw Garfield's name in the mix (although he was aware it was coming, in newspapers he claimed surprise, in his diary he claimed he'd dream about the Presidency, but then claim to family members it was an office he claimed was too far out of his reach so he'd hardly think about it, but only serve in offices he never sought out). So, when he won, a very close election by 7000 votes, it wasn't a surprise that he met with adversity, not only from the other party, but from within his own party.

The best chapter of the book, though, happens to be the last one. A detailed account of his assassin (a man who had no political affiliation or weight, who was simply an insane man felt "sent by God" to remove Garfield in order to obtain a cabinet position) shows how different times have become, and yet how similar they still can be. Once Garfield was shot (in the back, from about a yard away), it was so close to the election, Congress felt Chester A Arthur actually wouldn't be President, and that a reelection would take place...however, Garfield managed to hang on, bouncing from fits of near death to quite lucid, nearly healthy life for over 80 days. His cabinet was set, but Congress was on its summer break, and surprisingly, the country ran just fine without Garfield or Arthur anyway. So, when Garfield finally did pass, the Presidency did go to Arthur as Congress was returning to session, which should have been Garfield's opening term. Through the assassination, Garfield grew quite high in popularity with the people. Each time he rallied back from "certain death", the people loved him even more. Another irony in Garfield's life (or death, in this case) was that the doctor's had kept poking into his wound with unwashed fingers and equipment, and while that certainly helped make things worse, there were a myriad of other problems that would have caused the death anyway (undetected internal bleeding, a ruptured spleen, the bullet still lodged near the middle of his back, blood poisoning from the bullet and bone fragments as well as the fingers, etc). But the assassin tried to claim in court that he did not kill Garfield, the doctors did...he nearly shot at him, but Garfield survived that, and there were some people who sided with him (Charles Guiteau was sentenced to the gallows anyway, singing his own made up song, "I was sent by God"). Coincidentally, Robert Todd Lincoln was present (a member of Garfield's cabinet) shortly after Garfield got shot, and later Garfield's sons went to serve in future administrations (Teddy Roosevelt's and Woodrow Wilson's).

Garfield said regarding personal security and assassination: "Assassination is like being struck by lightning...there is no way to stop it, so best not to worry about it." And so, 16 years after Lincoln was assassinated, Garfield is also assassinated, with no secret service or personal security anywhere around him in a train station in Washington. I think because of their closeness, Garfield is often forgotten by the general public. He's a name that is known and recognized as a President, but most people probably couldn't tell you when he was President or what happened to him, (and in all honesty, his term in office was incredibly short, beaten only by William Henry Harrison) which is sad, but due to his constant contradictory nature, it's hard to pinpoint any other reason why he should be remembered beyond that.

[Brian Pate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography of our 20th president. Peskin shines as a storyteller, weaving together details and quotes in a well-told narrative.

If Garfield had not been assassinated in his first year as president, I believe he would have been a good and strong leader. His background as a brilliant academic, his 18-year experience in the US Congress, and his personal faith and scruples would have served our nation well. His showdown with Conkling gave us a hint of what this strength of character would have looked like.

Two criqitues:

1. Peskin does not seem to weight different areas of Garfield's life as more or less important. We chug along at the same pace through Civil War battles and financial scandals, through convention intrigue and choosing cabinet members.

2. This biography can be so focused on Garfield's life that we miss what is going on in the USA as a whole. Other national events and leaders are only mentioned if Garfield commented on them.

[Darrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Abram Garfield (named after a brother who died in infancy) was born in a log cabin in Ohio in 1831. His parents felt the death of the first James was punishment from God for not being religious, so they became Disciples (Cambellites). His father died a couple years later after catching a chill while fighting a fire.

His mother sold some land and took in sewing to make money. His 12-year-old brother Thomas worked the fields of their farm. His sisters Mary and Mehitabel (Hittie) did house work. James  was too young to be especially close to his older siblings. When neighborhood boys made fun of him for being poor and not having a dad, he was said to have "the skin of a rabbit" because he was so sensitive.

His mother remarried in 1842, lived with her new husband for a year, then left him. She refused his calls to come back. Divorce was scandalous in those days, so she avoided his calls for divorce until 1850.

During his adolescence, James spent much time daydreaming, once falling into a well while he was lost in thought. He loved hunting and reading fiction.

At 16, he joined his cousin's canal boat as the driver, the person who prodded the horses who pulled the barge. Lost in his dreams, he fell into the canal 14 times. Since he couldn't swim, he had to be fished out each time.

His mother convinced him to go to Geauga Academy where he learned Latin, algebra, grammar, and took part in debates with fellow students. He worked as a carpenter and teacher to make money on the side.

Garfield became more religious, got baptized into the Disciples, and stopped swearing for the rest of his life. The Disciples founded a school called Western Reserve Eclectic Institute which Garfield attended with four of his cousins. He studied hard and excelled at debate.

He began preaching at 20 which earned him a dollar a sermon. He switched from being a student to a teacher at the Eclectic, having learned all they could teach him. He got engaged to one of his Greek students, Lucretia "Crete" Rudolph.

He decided to continue his studies at the Calvinist Williams College in Massachusetts. He heard Ralph Waldo Emerson speak and was very impressed. He asked a phrenologist how high a place in the world he should aim for and was told as high as he pleased.

After graduating from Williams, he went back to being a teacher at the Eclectic and soon became president of the college. He treated his students with kindness and would join them in sports. He still hadn't married his fiancée over four years after becoming engaged. He finally married her in November 1858 in a quiet ceremony.

Previously indifferent to slavery, he grew to view it as a sin and once sheltered a runaway slave on his way to Canada. He got elected state senator in Ohio. Garfield was described as a bear of a man who would hug his friends so hard it would almost make their ribs crack. Garfield read law in his spare time and in early 1861 passed the bar. Although he was now a lawyer, he had no intention of practicing.

When the Civil War started, Garfield was eager to join the fight. A phrenologist had told him he had the bumps of a general. The governor made him colonel of the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Garfield had to recruit his own troops, many of them students who were eager to serve under their principal. Having no previous military experience, he learned on the job.

His regiment was ordered to eastern Kentucky to engage with Confederate troops led by Humphrey Marshall. Garfield was outnumbered at Paintsville, but tricked the Confederates into thinking his army was larger by dividing it into three groups which marched on three different roads with the cavalry in front to mask their actual size, causing Marshall to retreat.

At the battle of Middle Creek, Garfield estimated that 125 Confederates were killed, while Marshall estimated 250 Union troops had died. It was a hard-fought, strenuous battle, but in reality, only 3 died on the Union side and only 11 on the Confederate side. Although Marshall retreated again, he claimed victory because Garfield needed to resupply and didn't continue chasing after him!

Garfield became a hero and received a promotion to brigadier general. He had not sought the promotion. He had a superstition against "place-seeking", preferring to leave his career up to fate. If an opportunity was given to him, he'd take it, but he wouldn't seek it out.

Before leaving eastern Kentucky, Garfield attacked Pound Gap on the Kentucky and Virginia border which was supplying bushwhackers in eastern Kentucky. Garfield's favorite strategy in battle was the flank movement (dividing his troops into two groups, one attacking from the front, the other sneaking up on the enemy's rear). He would use this same strategy over and over again, even though it usually didn't work. (In order to work, it required precise timing.) At Pound Gap, his frontal assault reached the enemy first, causing them to retreat before his rear troops could get into place. Garfield fired his only shot of the war. His men said he killed someone, but he hoped they were wrong.

Garfield was next assigned to command 4,000 men who hadn't seen battle yet. They marched to join Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, but the rebels retreated just as they got there. Garfield recklessly dashed ahead of his men, exposing himself to fire. One stray shell barely missed him, and turned an officer next to him into "a quivery mass of bleeding flesh."

They pursued the enemy to Corinth, sleeping for weeks in wet uniforms and sleeping on a campsite that was actually the burial ground for thousands of decaying corpses. Disease was once again rampant. The Confederates retreated again and the Union didn't know where they went.

Many Northerners thought the war was being fought to preserve the Union, not free the slaves, but Garfield disagreed. When Garfield was ordered to surrender a fugitive slave hiding in his camp, he vehemently refused his commander.

During a sick leave, Garfield's wife nursed him back to health. It was the first time since they got married four years ago that the two spent a significant amount of time together. Their fractured relationship began to mend. Meanwhile, his friends got him elected to the US Congress. (Garfield as usual didn't campaign for himself.) However, he still had a year of military service before he would become a congressman.

While awaiting his next assignment, Garfield had an affair with a Mrs. Calhoun. His wife found out and wrote him a letter. He apologized and they seemed to reconcile once again. He finally got an assignment to rejoin the war effort in Tennessee as chief of staff to General William S. Rosecrans.

Rosecrans made the Confederates retreat from Chattanooga. The rebels then received reinforcements and attacked the union army at Chickamauga Creek. A miscommunication led to a gap in the Union line on the right wing and Rosecrans thought they'd lost and retreated to Chattanooga. Garfield, however, thought the left wing still held and rode out there. Outnumbered and nearly surrounded, General Thomas held off continuous rebel charges for five hours with Garfield at his side and prevented the confederates from retaking Chattanooga. Towards the end, ammunition was so low, they had to fight the rebels off with their bayonets.

The Confederates laid siege to Chattanooga while reinforcements arrived for the Union side, but the war was over for Garfield who had been called to Washington. On the way there, he briefly met his new son Harry. He began making abolition speeches in Maryland. At one event, a heckler threw a rotten egg at him. Garfield replied that rebels had used more dangerous weapons against him and he was willing to renew the fight right then and there. The crowd turned on the heckler, giving him a good thrashing.

Garfield was called back home after his first-born child Eliza suddenly died, only three and half years old. He carried his sorrow with him the rest of his life.

Although he would threaten to quit every two years like clockwork, Garfield was a member of Congress for the next 17 years. He was scholarly-minded and spent more time in the Library of Congress than any other congressman. He believed the miseries of the Civil War were divine punishment for slavery. He advocated for equal rights for black men, confiscation of plantations, and death or exile to the leaders of the Confederacy. He also wanted to regulate railroads and was opposed to monopolies. He held Lincoln in disdain for being too moderate and for treating his friend Salmon Chase badly.

After they were married nearly five years, Lucretia pointed out that she and James had only lived together for twenty weeks of that time. Garfield got the hint and rented rooms for his family to live with him in Washington. However, this caused money to be tight.

He entered into a get-rich-quick scheme with his old assistant quartermaster Ralph Plumb. They would buy land cheaply, form a company, then the company would buy the land at an inflated price. They'd be buying land from themselves with money from other people who hoped the land would be rich in oil. However, they failed to find enough buyers for their scam.

Garfield became less radical in his views once the war was over. He was friends with President Johnson and tried to be a peacemaker between Johnson and Congress at first, but when Johnson tried to get rid of the Freedmen's Bureau, Garfield turned against him.

He got his first case as a lawyer before the Supreme Court in the most celebrated case of the decade, Ex parte Milligan, less than a week before it was scheduled to be heard. Milligan and his friends had been sentenced to death for helping the Confederates during the war. Garfield argued that since Milligan was a civilian, he should have been tried in a civilian court rather than a military tribunal, and won the case.

Milligan and his friends never paid him for his services, and the fact he defended rebels hurt him come election time. However, not many lawyers can say their first case was a Supreme Court win.

As congressmen, Garfield established the Department of Education. However the first commissioner was incompetent and it was soon reduced to a Bureau.

Garfield considered Native Americans to be savages and once suggested they be starved to death by exterminating the buffalo. He later admitted he was wrong about this.

When Grant became president, he made an enemy of Garfield by ignoring his recommendation for a local postmaster. A grudge Garfield would carry to his grave.

Garfield was named as one of the bribed congressmen in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Garfield did take money from them, but he claimed it was a loan, not a bribe, and he did give the money back before the scandal broke. Another scandal broke when Congress voted itself a retroactive pay raise. Garfield was in danger of losing reelection. He was the first congressman to refuse the money from the pay raise and return it to the treasury. (And he could have used that money. He couldn't afford to buy a horse and instead had to rent one by the month.)

To get reelected, he bribed the editor of the Western Reserve Chronicle with a paid trip to California to write nice things about him in the newspaper. One of Garfield's agents threatened to shut down the Andover Post Office unless the postmaster got everyone to vote for Garfield. Garfield employed former Disciple Dr. Lewis Pinkerton to spy on his opposition and answer newspaper attacks.

Another scandal hit. A paving company called DeGolyer had paid bribes to win the contract to pave Washington D.C.'s dirt roads. As congressman, Garfield was influential in paying for this and he had received $5,000 from the company in a clear conflict of interest. Garfield claimed this money had been paid to him in his capacity as a lawyer, however Garfield seems to have done very little legal work for the company.

Then another scandal occurred. Back in 1872, Garfield learned that Secretary of War William W. Belknap was taking bribes from a post trader in exchange for the trader getting a monopoly at Fort Sill and charging exorbitant sums. Garfield investigated and cleared Belknap who continued to take bribes until 1876 when he was finally exposed. Belknap resigned and Garfield claimed to be just as surprised as everybody else.

Garfield won reelection again, but his youngest son Neddie died from whooping cough. The day after the funeral, he gave a stump speech to help get Hayes elected president. It was hard to campaign through his grief, but if a Southerner became president, Garfield felt the results would be disastrous.

At first, it appeared Tilden won the election, but Republicans challenged the results in three states. Garfield went down to Louisiana to ensure the vote was counted fairly. Tilden had won Louisiana by over 7,000 votes, however whites had prevented blacks from voting by marching around the streets with guns, whipping them, and even murdering them. Garfield interviewed witnesses and helped the effort to throw out enough votes to make Hayes the winner.

Some Democrats adopted the slogan "Tilden or blood," threatening another civil war. A bullet was fired through Hayes' window. Garfield wasn't worried, though. Democratic congressmen began reaching out to him willing to compromise. Nine Southern Congressmen pledged to make Garfield speaker of the house if David M. Key of Tennessee was appointed Postmaster General, a promise they ended up breaking even though they got what they wanted.

An electoral commission was created to decide who would be the next president. Garfield spoke against it until he found himself appointed one of the commissioners. When the commission decided in favor of Hayes, Democrats began a filibuster to prevent Hayes from being made president. Garfield was part of the meeting in the smoke-filled room in Wormley's Hotel in which Democrats agreed to let Hayes become president in exchange for removing the Republican-controlled government from Louisiana.

After getting Hayes elected, however, Garfield grew to resent him. Like Hayes, he was in favor of doing away with the spoils system whereby politicians rewarded friends and family with appointments, however Hayes wouldn't appoint Garfield's friends and did appoint his own.

In 1880, Garfield won the Republican nomination for president. Garfield's campaign emphasized his rags-to-riches story. Horatio Alger himself wrote a campaign biography titled "From Canal Boy to President" in support of Garfield.

Over a hundred thousand civilians were employed by the federal government and it was expected each new administration would replace a significant portion of them. In the early days of his presidency, thousands of office-seekers waited patiently in line outside the White House to speak to the president. They laid siege to his office and accosted him on the street. Garfield gave jobs to his friends, family, and those who helped him get elected. He even gave a diplomatic post in Constantinople to Lew Wallace after reading his novel Ben Hur, to help him get material for a sequel.

Garfield was only president a few months, so he didn't have time to do much. He called for a Pan-American conference to mediate disputes among Latin American nations, however Garfield's successor cancelled the conference. Garfield successfully refunded the national debt by giving owners of six percent bonds the option of holding them at three and a half percent. He was alerted that his former campaign manager Stephen Dorsey was committing fraud by overcharging for postal star routes and ordered an investigation.

A mentally ill man named Charles Julius Guiteau believed God had selected him to remove the president. He was one of several office-seekers who approached Garfield looking for a job who didn't get one. He believed he was responsible for making Garfield president and expected to be rewarded by being made Minister to Austria. When this didn't happen, God told him to kill the president.

About to leave on vacation, Garfield was in a good mood for once. Before leaving the White House, he tossed his sons about to the tune of "I mixed these babies up" from his favorite Gilbert and Sullivan musical.

When he got to the train station, Guiteau shot the president twice, then put the pistol in his pocket. He was apprehended by police and put up no resistance.

One bullet had just grazed Garfield's arm. Doctors poked and prodded Garfield's wound with their unwashed fingers and instruments in search of the other bullet, but couldn't find it. His sons Harry and Jim cried uncontrollably while a dozen doctors milled around suggesting remedies.

The doctors were surprised to find Garfield had lived through the night. It would be eighty days before he would die. As summer continued, the temperature rose to the upper nineties. Scientist Simon Newcomb and the Navy engineers created the first air conditioner to help the fallen president. Alexander Graham Bell invented a metal detector to help look for the bullet, but he failed it find it.

Guiteau blamed Garfield's death on the doctors. "The doctors did that. I simply shot at him." Guiteau was hanged to death, still believing he had done God's work to the end. Many in the public agreed Garfield's true cause of death was medical malpractice, although other sources of infection such as the putrefying fragments of shattered vertebrae could have been what ultimately killed him.

By September, the doctors allowed Garfield to be transferred to New Jersey, near the president's favorite seaside resort of Long Beach. On September 6th, streets were cleared of traffic as he was taken to the train station. He was taken to a specially modified train that burned only anthracite coal to reduce smoke and fumes. Boxes of ice and a false ceiling were installed to cool the train car. Approaching trains had to stop so the noise wouldn't disturb the president. Houses along the route were set up as emergency medical shelters in case the trip had to be cut short.

People along the train route bowed their heads and removed their hats as the train passed. It was declared a national day of prayer. The train pulled up to Franklyn Cottage. Two thousand volunteers had built a spur to connect the railroad to the front door of the cottage. The president's car was uncoupled and pushed to the cottage by hundreds of hands along this spur. The president himself was carried upstairs to a bedroom facing the ocean.

He recovered a bit, then fell into illness again. He died a few weeks short of his 50th birthday.

[Quincy Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most comprehensive Garfield bio, fair and balanced

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Abram Garfield is a man of somewhat complex character. It is tragic that he was allowed so short a time to serve, given that he had an otherwise dogged if not precisely stellar career.

After reading Hayes, he presents an interesting foil. Garfield was not wealthy, and struggled for money much of his life. He was a lawyer who never really practiced. He had a largely uneventful if not lackluster military career. He was not particularly honest. Hayes was really the opposite - the president most wounded by the civil war, and aside from Grant, the one most involved. Where Hayes was earnest in his desire to serve, Garfield comes off a little less patriotic and a little more political.

Peskin presents us, of course, with the Garfield that there is to find in records and memories. He certainly doesn't agree with the worst criticisms of the man, such as Hayes' dismissive 'he was weak' remark. It's hard to know if Garfield would have made a strong president. Peskin certainly argued that he would have been and that he was, when he had the chance, but any reader of the book has to admit that despite Peskin's strenuous conclusions, Garfield seemed easily pulled from all sides, weak in his decisions and easily manipulated by Blaine.

Like any man who became president, Garfield was not without his strengths. He was a manlier man than Hayes, though he, like Hayes, grew up largely without a father. Garfield was less of a scholar but certainly a singular mind, with his love for economics and his passion project of hard money. Hayes was softer in almost all of the ways that Garfield was rough - even in images, Hayes seems approachable, Garfield grumpy. Garfield was not unfriendly but not exactly affable, given to stump speaking and a gifted ability to raise to the occasion of a speech.

Peskin manages to be balanced about his reading of the man, however. When Garfield found himself mired in scandals with banks and railroads, Peskin provides Garfield's denials and does an excellent job of dissecting the facts. Without hard evidence, occasionally, Peskin gives excellent explanations as to why Garfield's defenses ring true or false, and as often as not Garfield appears more disingenuous than truthful.

The book took me a while to slog through. This is not because it is the driest of books I have read (Bauer's Zachary Taylor biography, Cleeve's W.H. Harrison biography, and Ketcham's Madison were drier, I think) but there does seem to be an immense amount of attention spent on some subjects that makes the book drag. Garfield's few months in office are given much more time than I expected, for instance. The real reason I think I struggled though was that Garfield as a character left a bad taste in my mouth. He has a penchant for being mopey and losing faith in himself, a determined but somewhat pompous (compared to some other presidents) sense of destiny concerning his own political rise (ad nauseum, honestly) and was not especially sentimental. In all of these things I had to compare him to Hayes, also from Ohio, and in most of them Garfield came out the loser.

The truth is I simply LIKED Hayes a lot more, while Garfield struck me as somewhat abrasive. For one thing, Peskin does an excellent job of reading politics and events of the day from Garfield's perspective, and I ultimately disagree with a lot of Garfield's opinions. Garfield was a fan of Rosecrans and a hater of Grant (despite Garfield being AT Chickamauga). Garfield was also unfailingly critical of Lincoln. My admiration for Lincoln and Grant both, I think, made him harder to swallow as a person.

A little to academic and at length for any casual reader, it is certainly the most comprehensive biography of this overlooked president I could find, and if you are looking for one to truly get into the times, this book is an excellent choice.

[Mark Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book covers the life of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. It covers the full span of Garfield's life in equal detail, from his childhood to his assassination.

The author convincingly identifies several common themes of Garfield's personality throughout his life, such as his fatalistic view of his own destiny that prohibited him from actively seeking high public office. He was also someone that was much more comfortable dealing with issues rather than personal politics; he found himself frequently indecisive when pressured to change his position by strong personalities, most notably James G. Blaine, long-time Speaker of the House and later Garfield's Secretary of State.

The author claims that in his brief administration, Garfield began the trend of empowering the Execute that continued into the 20th century, mostly via winning a battle over patronage with powerful New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. However, it seems hard to credit Garfield with this, since he won his battle with Conkling almost by accident; he spent most of his time vacillating back and forth about ridiculous schemes proposed by Blaine, and only went head-to-head with Conkling when Blaine's schemes failed.

On the whole, the writing is quite good; it is easy to follow and provides an appropriate level of depth. However, although Garfield seems to have been a study in contradictions, I would have liked to have seen more analysis to explain why Garfield chose certain contradictory positions at different times in his career.

Ultimately, I came away from this book not thinking very highly of Garfield as a president. While that is certainly not the author's fault, it does put a bit of a damper on my enjoyment of the book. Still, it was well-written, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Garfield or in this period of American history.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

James A. Garfield is one of the forgotten Presidents, one of the 'gravely vacant and bewhiskered faces', as Peskin puts, part of the succession of unremarkable Presidents between U.S Grant and Teddy Roosevelt. A major reason for that is the length of his administration - just 200 days from his inauguration to his assassination by Charles Guiteau, and that assassination is largely the only reason his name is know these days, part of the roll-call of assassinated Presidents.

This does Garfield somewhat of a disservice, as his career was a fairly remarkable series of accidental and unsought elections, and he was involved in almost every issue of national importance for twenty years. He served with distinction in the Civil War and during his 17 years as a Congressman participated in Reconstruction, helped to stabilise the nation's economy, emerged as a party leader and helped lead the Republican party out of its Civil War roots and into the role it would later come to occupy in the twentieth century. Garfield made it a point of pride and principle never to seek office or election, preferring to trust to 'destiny' - and his election as President will certainly be the only time a delegate at a National Convention devoted to electing someone else will ever end up being nominated by acclamation himself.

Garfield comes across as a good man, not perhaps as honest or upright as he may have claimed to be, and his desire not to seek office but let the offices seek him smacks sometimes of false modesty. But there can be little doubt that he was a relatively level-headed, non-partisan figure in an area where partisanship reached new heights, and for all the mud thrown at him in his time very little ever stuck. It is just a shame that his political career can only ever be judged by his role as Congressman, that he never had the opportunity to truly develop as President.

[Scott Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Garfield, 20th President of the United States, held office for approximately six months prior to his assassination in 1881. The killer, Charles Julius Guiteau, was a deranged excommunicate of the utopian Oneida Community, who felt God had "selected him as the instrument of the President's removal." Biographer Allan Peskin provides much insight into the life of Garfield, perhaps best summarized in the final pages: "Garfield's life was actually tangled in contradictions: a pacifist turned (Civil War) soldier, an educator turned politician, a preacher turned economist, a man of essentially literary tastes cast in the role of party chieftain, a husband who, at length, fell in love with his wife, and a man racked by self-doubts, who was, at the same time, convinced of his high destiny" (p.612). What I also learned about Garfield is that prior to becoming President, he served nine consecutive terms as Congressman representing the 19th district of Ohio. Even though his time in the White House was cut short, Garfield left a legacy of fighting for laissez-faire economics and hard currency, epitomized by his famous quote, " "the chief duty of the government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people." Would that more presidents governed by such a standard.

[Dave N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another competent and readable biography of a little-known president. Garfield, much like his predecessor, Hayes (and to a certain extent his predecessor, Grant), had a presidency defined by party politics and the shadow of civil service reform. That is didn't last a whole term was a shame, because he certainly seemed like a more interesting politician than some of his contemporaries. Peskin writes a pretty basic biography, with one notable exception: Garfield's childhood takes up much less real estate than I've come to expect from the run-of-the-mill presidential biography. Instead, Peskin gives us the highlights and then moves on to his military and political careers, which, for the most part, is a welcome difference. Often these books spend hundreds of pages trying to squeeze significance from a person's early days, and almost equally as often it comes off half-cocked. It's difficult to say whether Peskin falls into the trap that many of his contemporaries have in creating a hagiographic account, so more on that when I get more background on Garfield from subsequent looks at Chester A. Arthur and the like.

[Peter Sprunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written, thorough but never tedious, biography of James Garfield. Peskin takes the time to explain Garfield's upbringing (poor), schooling, career as a teacher, and finally a General under Rosecrans in the Civil War before diving into his political career. This book is well organized and constant in the the amount of description given from birth to death which is more than can be said about some biographies.

Because his district was very Republican, only once did he need to worry about re-election, and his actions in congress were never seriously analyzed by the electorate. Additionally, by his nature, he was not a decisive and his views were easily swayed by his friends. My only complaint about this book is that Peskin does not dive into some of the contradictions in Garfield's policy over time. I think this would have helped with my overall understanding of Garfield and the times.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peskin’s Garfield was good, but (of course there’s a but) I did notice some spelling and citation errors which detracted from the experience. Also, I felt at times as if Peskin was on a mission to redeem Garfield who, despite having some good points, was overall not really that admirable of a figure. He cheated on his wife and was rather dismissive of her overall. He was a politician through and through in the modern sense of the term. While occasionally claiming to want to do more for his constituents and for the nation, Garfield's primary motivating factor always seemed to be claiming the highest place he could on the totem pole, and there was little he wouldn’t do to get a little higher. If Peskin had been true to portraying Garfield as he was and not on making excuses for him, I think the biography would have been better. As it was, though, it was worth a read and did provide some valuable insights into our 20th president.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST LINE REVIEW: "Early in March of 1820 Abram Garfield lifted his bride Eliza into a one-horse wagon loaded with their few possessions and set out for the shores of Lake Erie." Future president Garfield's parents started and ended their life together with few possessions. Their son would also struggle throughout his life to find financial comfort, but what he lacked in his own financial success was countered in many ways by role he played helping his country. Seventeen years as a congressman after fighting in the Civil War, and then going on to be a surprise candidate for the presidency...something he did not want, but accepted when it was thrust upon him. And a tragic ending for someone who had the potential to be one of our great presidents, instead of a "forgotten" one. Peskin does an excellent job of bring Garfield to life in a well-researched and highly readable bio.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peskin has skillfully put the life of a fascinating, but forgotten, President onto the pages of this book. He spares little detail - which at times can make the book dense - but seems to have captured the spirit of Garfield in his writing. A wonderful read for anyone interested in American politics during and shortly after Reconstruction.

[Tom Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to read about President Garfield, read Candace Millard's Destiny of the Republic. If you hunger for more Garfield, red this book. Or, read this book up to the last chapter, then switch to Millard's book. Millard's book does a better job documenting the assassination, whereas this book better documents the rest of Garfield's life. Or, read them both and see how they differ.

[Dan Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written account of the professional life of a former president. An unwilling candidate who took the mantle of responsibility seriously after he won the presidency. After only a few months he was cut down by the assassin's bullet. A prolonged demise made all the worse by unsanitary medical conditions and inept medical practice.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good synopsis of early days as a teacher, thorough telling of his time in the Civil War, less detailed description of his time in the Congress. Ends abruptly with assassination and could use more discussion on his impact, and how his death affected the country and GOP politics.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better presidential biographies I've read to date. Fascinating life and times.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, readable bio.