President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier

by C.W. Goodyear

An “ambitious, thorough, supremely researched” ( The Washington Post ) biography of the extraordinary, tragic life of America’s twentieth president—James Garfield.

In “the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost fifty years” ( The Wall Street Journal ), C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the most remarkable Americans ever to win the Presidency. Progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canalman; crooked election-fixed and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated. James Abram Garfield was all these things and more.

Over nearly two decades in Congress during a polarized era—Reconstruction and the Gilded Age—Garfield served as a peacemaker in a Republican Party and America defined by divisions. He was elected to overcome them. He was killed while trying to do so.

President Garfield is American history at its finest. It is about an impoverished boy working his way from the frontier to the Presidency; a progressive statesman, trying to raise a more righteous, peaceful Republic out of the ashes of civil war; the tragically imperfect course of that reformation, and the man himself; a martyr-President, whose death succeeded in nudging the country back to cleaner, calmer politics.

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

624 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2023

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm low key kinda of obsessed with James Garfield.

Why?

I don't know. Maybe it's because he's rarely ever talked about despite the fact that he literally died for his country. Garfield was our 20th president and the second of 4 Presidents to be assassinated. Garfield's assassination came just 16 years after Lincoln's and 20 years before the assassination of McKinley. As I mentioned in my review of the McKinley biography 3 Presidents were assassinated in 36 years...1987 was 36 years ago...imagine if 3 of our last 7 Presidents were assassinated.

Garfield and McKinley don't get discussed as often as Lincoln and Kennedy. My dad couldn't even remember who the 3rd assassinated president was.

Why is that?

For one the Lincoln and Kennedy presidency came at times of great change. Lincoln had just ended the Civil War and Kennedy was president during the cold war, civil rights and a generational change. Also Kennedy's death is modern. It happened in my parents lifetime my parents were 7 and 8 years old when Kennedy was assassinated. We also have video of the Kennedy assassination. Garfield and McKinley president during a "lull" in American history. That doesn't mean nothing was happening. Garfield was president during end of the post Reconstruction era and government and business corruption were a growing problem but for the most part in the overarching history of America it wasn't a jam packed era.

I'm also slightly obsessed with Garfield because of how he died. He was shot by Charles Guiteau who was a job seeker in what was known as the "Spoils System" but Garfield didn't die from the gunshot...his doctor killed him. Garfield's doctor William Bliss if alive today would be a regular guest on the Joe Rogan podcast. He was a quack. Germ theory was widely known by this time and while it wasn't as widely practiced in the states as in Europe it was still seen as a viable practice. Dr. Bliss would hear non of that though. Dr. Bliss dug his dirty fingers in Garfield's gunshot wound, he force fed him red meat and milk and once Garfield could no longer eat he gave him milk, broth and bourbon enemas. He bleed Garfield and saw gangrene as a sign of healing. Modern doctors believe that Garfield could have survived if his wound had been properly treated and cleaned with alcohol. Instead his wound got infected and he died a slow painful death 2 months after being shot from sepsis. Of assassinated Presidents Garfield's death was the worst, Kennedy's the best...because it was quick.

As I continue my journey through presidential history I do plan on reading more about Garfield and I might to a side quest and read up on presidential assassins...I don't know if there are any books on Garfield and McKinley's killers tho. Up next I get in my time machine to return to current day..that's right Joe Biden is my next presidential read.

If you enjoy American History than consider picking up this book. It was despite its size, a rather quick read and it was fun....if you're a nerd who loves History.

Which president should I read up on in the future?

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, I wondered just how much I would enjoy C.W. Goodyear's President Garfield. I thoroughly enjoyed Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic and felt that might have given me all I needed to know about a president whose administration was regrettably short. Like Roscoe Conkling, I underestimated the man (and his biographer).

Goodyear puts together a detailed, well-researched, and immersive biography. I find many authors can write in-depth about a topic, but it takes true talent to keep it interesting throughout. Make no mistake, this is a long book and clocks in just under 500 pages. Sure, it's not a Ron Chernow doorstop, but it could hold quite a few doors open. Goodyear never lost my interest and I was invested the entire way. The book covers everything from Garfield's upbringing, his service in the Civil War, and his extensive political life. Goodyear also keeps the side stories to an absolute minimum. Many books like this will throw so many names at you that it's impossible to keep them straight. Goodyear is laser focused and it keeps the narrative moving while still being very detailed. Highly recommend for any reader even slightly interested in Garfield.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

[David Crumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A President Known Better for his Death than His Life

In August 1981, I was running a Sunday magazine for a suburban newspaper in Michigan where we occasionally ran a column under the banner: "Just a Century Ago ..." I was fascinated by the fact that our newspaper had, at that point long before the Internet, a rich archive of our paper's late 19th-Century editions and it was fun to write what I liked to call stories with "a second-century lede." (All daily journalists are familiar with writing "second-day ledes" to freshen news stories that happened 24 hours ago. My twist on that daily challenge was to occasionally freshen a story that "broke" 100 years earlier. It was fun to research and write—and readers enjoyed it, too.)

What I discovered in that particular August was that, back in 1881, the newspaper had published daily letters from readers offering their own home-spun advice on how to take care of the ailing president. Americans who know anything at all about Garfield, today, likely know that he was shot in early July, 1881, but did not die until September of that year. He spent several months dying because his doctors lacked even the basic practices we know today that could have saved him. For example, one doctor probed the wound without cleaning his hands. X-rays weren't available until more than a decade later. The nation hung on the daily drama of the president's sad decline.

In those letters from readers in 1881, lots of folks had their own advice for Garfield from his diet (one woman insisted horseradish was crucial) to poultices packed with all manner of substances (including mixtures of moss from Michigan pines). I found myself deeply moved by this national tragedy, which unfolded in excruciatingly slow motion because noone seemed capable of saving this poor man.

I published a column about this outpouring of public concern for Garfield and it was one of the most popular columns I ever wrote in that "Just a Century Ago ..." series. And, until this year, that's about all I really knew about Garfield.

When my now-adult "kids" were back in high school studying AP American History and I served as their quiz coach each week, Garfield was dismissed by their teacher, who referred to him as "one of the second raters" among U.S. presidents. In other words, they didn't need to learn much about him because he wouldn't be all that important on the final AP tests. That dismissal wasn't as unfair as it might seem, given that even the consensus in Garfield's Wikipedia biography is that, not too many years after his death, "Garfield's short time as president was forgotten."

So, why am I giving this book 5 stars and encouraging others to read this lengthy new biography of the man? Because what I enjoyed so much about this book is the unhurried way C.W. Goodyear tells us about "the America" from which Garfield emerged as a boy and young man—and through which he passed as an officer in the Union army during the Civil War—and eventually emerged as a key figure in Congress.

The second thing Americans may know about Garfield is that he was "the last president who was born in a log cabin," a reference to his upbringing in what was then the Ohio frontier. At one point to make ends meet, his father helped dig one of the major canals through that region and eventually a young James worked on canal tow paths.

Yes, Goodyear takes us through a whole lot of Garfield's story that doesn't involve Civil War battlefields or the drama of his assassination—the two chapters of his life that have received the most attention by historians in recent decades. As I picked up this volume, from time to time over the last couple of months, I felt like I was enjoying one of those super-long Atlantic magazine pieces that explore some aspect of American life. I could read a good chunk, enjoy that slice of American life, then let the book sit there for another week or so. That's how I finished the book, finally, today.

As it turns out, one aspect of Garfield's life that I did not know is that he was, in his era, a kind of Zelig, the Woody Allen character who seems to pop up at every significant turn of world events. Garfield crossed paths with a lot of other major figures of his era and also dealt with the major issues of his day. And, ultimately, that's a key reason I enjoyed having this book on my end table, always ready for another 20 or 30 pages as these weeks passed: Garfield's life illuminates that whole era. And, his role in that era, as I am judging that life in 2023, was heroic on so many issues. He supported the end of slavery, and then later supported civil rights for African Americans.

He was a remarkably goodhearted leader—the kind of all-American leader who supported fairness for all and the progressive causes that could have made that possible—in other words, the kind of American leader wh0 we still need in our troubled world today.

If you love American history and are willing to let this newly emerging historian, Mr. Goodyear, slowly unfold Garfield's story across these more than 600 pages—then this is the kind of book you might want to add to your own "to read" stack on your own favorite end-table.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am becoming more and more of a sucker for the great autobiographical and biographical accounts of great leaders worldwide (in the subjective sense - perhaps the better word would be powerful) - but increasingly drawn to the lesser-known accomplishments of former US Presidents.

Even though Garfield was only the second president to be assassinated in the nation’s young history (as the twentieth president) - preceding him was Lincoln in 1865 by just 16 years (or only four presidential terms) - succeeding him was McKinley a mere 20 years later (or just five presidential terms).

After that, it wasn’t until 62 more years had past (now fifteen to sixteen full presidential terms) that our last deadly assassination occurred. The modern technological marvel of the television set being introduced into millions of US households in the 1960s allowed, for the first time ever, the shocking death of JFK and following political tragedies, scandals, news, etc., to gradually take on a more profound effect in the lives of ordinary people (and thus the context in which they saw their leading political institutions).

Before all of this though, there was an oft-forgotten great man…perhaps one of, if not the last, great men of his kind in the political sphere. Garfield may have held the highest office in the land for a paltry 200 days before being gunned down by one of the more radical factions of his own party, but it was his lengthy political career before the presidency, as well as the meaningful political ideals he left behind, which were most impressive in describing the man’s legacy.

Instead of telling us what the American public may largely already know about Garfield (he was the last president to come from complete poverty, using the American dream to elevate himself to the highest office in the land, before his 1881 assassination), Goodyear regales us with the longer, more important years and contributions - yet lesser known ones - from Garfield’s public service.

He spent 20 years in and out of the House of Representatives, even rejecting a very likely promotion into a Senatorial career, due to the request of President Grant that he remain in his peacekeeping role in the House.

He was one of the last real proponents of the American Dream, believing that dedication and determination for learning and working hard would be the true source of one’s success - rather than being trapped upon the conditions in which they’d been born into.

By understanding and patiently hearing out different opinions of not just allies, but top adversaries, Garfield was thus not only able to think more broadly and fairly, but to learn
and maintain the invaluable art of compromise in bringing about true change and reform in America’s government.

He was, after all, the living embodiment of this success story. American people could use his story as inspiration for their own dreams of eventual prosperity and fulfillment.

Little known fact: in keeping with his view that true freedom only resulted from free (and equal) educational opportunities, Garfield created the country’s first real Education Department. Sure, it wasn’t an overall success and was mostly scaled back after just one year, but when finally introduced again nearly 50 years later, it can be attributed all to Garfield.

There’s a lot to be learned from Garfield’s affability, his patience, his willingness to trade personal advancement for the good of the collective future of the country, especially in today’s tumultuous political climate. The crazy thing being, the Republicans of the 1880s were of a very different breed than the ones today - they were the abolitionists, the ones that advocated for the end of slavery and full equality between the races.

And yet still, despite how much the fundamental ideology of the Republican Party has changed, the one constant - at least between the times of the Civil War and the present - it seems, has been that splintering factions have placed self-interest before the party interest of the party itself: conceding, apparently, that potential dissolution of the party is preferable to any individual setbacks.

In so doing, they are merely looking to possibly destroy the party in which Garfield so often strove to find unity within. The guy was so unfortunate as to be put into the job of the presidency (which he adamantly opposed running for) if party delegates could not come to a firm consensus on the party’s nominee… then, barring all other possible solutions, he would be willing to take on the job as the mediator between the two.

Then the poor guy gets shot for supposedly conspiring against the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party (even though his VP was a Stalwart, as well as many important nominees he placed into top positions of New York prestige and patronage).

Of course, the doctors treating him after his gunshot are also too egotistical to work together and heed the counsel of other physicians (especially modern groundbreaking ones such as Joseph Lister in England) to realize that their methods were outdated, and instead of a gunshot wound - which could easily be treated in today’s time - was not the real cause of Garfield’s eighty day fight to live followed by his subsequent death. Rather, it was a simple matter of sepsis/infection, and the ignorance in the medical field of that time in washing one’s hands to keep out harmful bacteria from the bodies of patients.

It’s both ridiculous and a dangerous but necessary lesson to learn from, especially, again, in today’s volatile political environment, that sheer egoism and ignorance brought about the untimely death of what could have been one of our country’s greatest reformers, and a man who would have doubtless inspired other politicians into a righteous civil career.

I decided on five stars because the way Goodyear writes and fondly remembers Garfield and his character, musings, and friendships is highly readable and enjoyable, never coming across as too dry or redundant, but never overly sensationalist, either. A wonderful read for history lovers looking for inspiration in corners they’d least expected to find it!

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first biography of President James Garfield that I have read and found it to be well written and researched. It is divided into sections of his early life, time in Congress and his two years as President. He is best remembered as the second president to be assassinated, but actually accomplished much prior to being President and also a few things while President. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Presidential biographies.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twain’s Gilded Age, all that glitters is not gold.

A humorist’s take on the politics of the time. In post-Civil War times there was an enormous amount of ill-will on both sides, but the Republican party was fractured, a division between Stalwarts (US Grant) and Half Breeds (radical). That dangerous rhetoric between those two parts of the party was responsible for Garfields death—peacemaker, martyr; not really that different.

”[Y]oungest participant in America’s radical revolution and remains perhaps the last still politically alive; he had chaired committees governing the country military, budget, census, and currency; he had trimmed many millions federal spending; head had single-handedly investigated a president, swindled an Indian tribe out of its ancestral lands, and even established a new wing of government: the first Department of Education.”

This by no stretch of the imagination means that Garfield was a “good” person by modern standards, but for his time, he was progressive and a staunch defender of the Constitution and the rights which it guarantees—even if you don’t like the person benefitting. Trying to weave the country back together after treason and secession was complicated because ensuring lives would mean revoking civil rights.


Garfield was a consummate politician at being willing to work with anyone to get legislation done for the people. Last president born in a log cabin, a school teacher, lawyer, Union General at Shiloh, Congressman, Speaker of the House, Ways and Means committee, and Senator are some of the hats he wore. His campaign had the first October surprise and courted mega donors (Rockefeller).

[A] Canadian offered that no president could be safe “in times of excitement” as long as Americans carried their “love of liberty so far as to allow the wickedest classes the liberty to carrying deadly weapons.”

Son of Abe Lincoln, witness to shooting and presiding Secretary of War has my sympathy, called for medical help directly after the shooting on the train platform. The first air conditioner was developed to ease summer discomfort as Garfield lay dying. Alexander Graham Bell developed first metal detector to try and find bullet in Garfield.

All for nought, medical science was not his friend and honestly, how he died and how long it took really were horrible. His death lead to reform of Civil Service and funding for Clara Barton’s American Red Cross.

“I have always felt that the ocean was my friend,” Garfield had written two weeks before being shot.

In the end, I found this a compelling read and it clearly explained how his death came to be; I feel infinitely better about knowing more about Garfield than he was assassinated shortly after being inaugurated.

It also seems eerily familiar--similar to the present political atmosphere.

[C. G. Telcontar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid bio of an Ohio president showcasing my state's political clout in the immediate post Civil War era but there are a couple of gaps. He shies away from fully discussing the treaty Garfield manipulated an Indian tribe into signing, suggesting you read someone else on the topic as well as teasing the ID of the assassin, Charles Gitteau, until the shooting occurs. It's not a murder mystery where you have to keep us guessing -- I don't understand the point. But worse, he doesn't say a word about Giteau's trial and execution, not a syllable. This seems ludicrous. Could you write a bio of JFK and not discuss Oswald? It's a huge swing and a miss that could have elevated this story. He focuses on the legacy and memorial to Garfield. Overall informative but inadequate in some respects.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 8 years old when I first learned about President Garfield. I was in third grade in a very progressive elementary school in Ohio, in a small town just a half hour or so down the road from President Garfield's home and we both read a biography on the man and went to visit his homestead [I ended up going three times in the next two years] that year, and I was hooked. Both on biographies and on the man himself and all he tried to accomplish in his short time as President. Not until I learned about Lincoln would I be so enamored with a president as I was [and still am] with President Garfield and even though I read the VERY excellent book "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" by Candice Millard, when I saw this on NetGalley, I knew I would have to read it as well. And here we are.

A lot of this I knew [from both the early biography {THAT I so wish I remembered the name of}, and the Candice Millard book as well as the visit to the homestead],but much of it was new to me and that was glorious. I love the fact that I am still able to learn things about one of my favorite people. And learn you will as this is pretty much an exhaustive deep dive into the life and death[a death that could have been prevented, but I won't go into that here] of President Garfield. It is a glorious read and a beautiful full tribute to a man who would have changed the course of the WHOLE nation had he lived and the legacy he left. I cannot recommend this book enough - very. well. done.

Thank you to NetGalley, C.W. Goodyear, and Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Brant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed learning about President Garfield’s childhood, ambition, military service during the Civil War, and political career during Reconstruction. Such an interesting man whose import is often overshadowed by the other Republicans of the era. But Goodyear makes a formidable case for Garfield describing him as principled but pragmatic, a man who understood the need for compromise, who fought against patronage but still dabbled in it, not because he was a hypocrite but because he avoided either/or extremes. Excellent, accessible biography. And I loved the way Goodyear dropped hints of the assassin lurking in the hallways, interjecting moments when the would-be President-killer sought a diplomatic position from aides or cornered the First Lady with an account of a pro-Garfield stump speech. Finally, I thought the author did a great job to describe the growing professional conflicts between Blaine, Conklin, Grant, and Garfield and humanizing his successor’s impossible task of assuming the presidency while also under the national eye as a co-conspirator in Garfield’s murder.

[Joseph Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best Presidential biography I have read so far. President Garfield was a fascinating man who embodied the American dream, from a childhood of poverty to his reluctant rise to President. He also encapsulated the American nightmare of war and gun violence (The American Civil War and assassination).

This was a significant time from the Civil War then to Reconstruction to post-Reconstruction. This era was excessively violent, violence driven by the racist South which was and in many ways still is a region that boggs down American progress in social and economic terms. Tribal division of the Republican party also added to the chaos leading to political violence which ended with three Presidential assassinations in just thirty-six years.

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several years ago I made a goal to read at least one biography of every United States president. I soon became aware that many of the lesser-known presidents had very little, if any, volumes devoted to them. For every Franklin Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln that literally had hundreds of volumes devoted to them, the minor chiefs such as Franklin Pierce or Benjamin Harris had little to nil. James Garfield, being somewhat inconsequential, did actually have one biography written about him around 1978, and because he was one of the lesser-known presidents, I was a bit surprised. So I was even more surprised when there was yet another biography written about 45 years later. Did we really need another one? And if so, is there enough interest about the man to actually warrant one?

Being a dedicated reader to the subject, I obviously had no problem picking this one up and adding to my collection. But I’m in the minority. I have a hard time understanding why many would want to read a bio of the 20th United States president. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy reading the book. I enjoyed reading it immensely. This book was well written and captivated my attention. I have to honestly say that I wish EVERY U.S. president had such a volume devoted to them. I would rapaciously snap it up and quickly devour it. But for the masses of other readers? Perhaps I’m overthinking things. There’s an awful lot of books out there, and there are hundreds of millions of readers with a diverse set of tastes.

Like all well-written biographies, this book does what it should in the sequential department. We read about James Garfield as a child, a young man, a teacher, a local politician, a soldier in the U.S. Civil War (he achieves the rank of General), a U.S. Congressman, and eventually a President of the United States. The main source of appeal that I found in this book wasn’t really about James Garfield the man, but rather the detailed paint strokes that the author gives us when creating a canvas of the time period in U.S. history.

I enjoyed reading about what life was like during Garfield’s 50 or so years of life (from about 1830 – 1880). I love the images of colonial America, the sweats and smells of the rather putrid city of Washington D.C., and most of all, the language of the educated populace that has been preserved through the multitudes of correspondence and diary entries. The American language had not quite been infested with slang, so reading very astute observations by key political figures of the time always seemed more as though they came from the mouth of a William Shakespeare as opposed to a cable tv talk show host.

But Garfield the man, well, there simply isn’t that much here that is very interesting. He was a rather quiet man who was thankfully an abolitionist, yet he never craved the spotlight nor had any searing ambitions to hold a high political office. In fact, even though he achieves the rank of general in the Union army during the Civil War, I can’t really recall too much about anything vastly historical that Garfield ever achieved on the battlefield. Yes, we do read of some important decisions he made and battles he fought, but it really does sort of have a rather a ho-hum feeling when discussing the escapades.

Once Garfield is elected to congress, the real joy in this book is reading not about him, but about the political system that exists. This book is a reminder that politics has always been corrupt and politicians were mostly about power and rarely selfless altruism. For people disgusted with the political climate of the 2020s, please don’t think that things are now “much worse” than they ever have been. No, the wretchedness has always been there, but in the days before sharing libelous Facebook posts and re-tweeting obvious lies, it took much longer for ignorance to breed and grow. The real appeal of this book was to see Garfield interact with some of the more wretched elements of U.S. politics such as the infamous New York City power boss Roscoe Conkling. Let’s just say that if you’re somewhat innocent like James Garfield, you need powerful friends to help you get elected. Once you’re elected, the expectation is reciprocation, and if it doesn’t happen there are problems. Big problems.

What most modern readers don’t know is that the actual presidency of James Garfield was very short. He only held office for about six months before an assassin’s bullet cut his life short. Because of this, the author spends a tad too much time talking about the primaries, the general election, and the attempted recovery of Garfield after he was wounded. It seems as though Garfield remained alive (with heavy suffering) for about the same amount of time as president as before the assassination happened. So read a LOT about Garfield on his sick bed, the nauseating details of the prolonged suffering, and the countless primitive medical techniques applied to him to try to keep him alive.

I did feel as though there were many parts of James Garfield’s life that were skipped over a bit. We don’t read a whole lot about his family life. Most of what we read about his wife ‘Crete’ we read from Garfield’s correspondence to and from her. It rarely seemed as though the two were ever in the same room. Their marriage didn’t seem to a particular joyous one either. In fact, we briefly read about an affair of Garfield’s fairly early in the marriage, yet the details provided in this book are incredibly sparse.

Speaking of incredibly sparse information, although we read ad-nauseum about the slow death suffered by Garfield after he his shot, we read almost nothing about his assassin, his background, nor his motives. In fact, we only read his name once. (As you’re reading this review, do YOU know the name of Garfield’s assassin? I didn’t think so.) So although this book was very well written, I confess that I thought maybe there should be more attention paid to some of the details that seemed a bit thin.

I should also point out that I did also read the biography of James Garfield that came out 45 years or so earlier (by Allan Peskin), but I read an awful lot, so I honestly can’t say that I remember much about it, nor can I give any sort of fair comparison. If you like history, though, and do have the urge to read about James Garfield, this book will more than adequately scratch your itch.

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know much about President Garfield other than his assassination. I do now. Great read if you are interested in him or this era. Enjoy!

[Adam Carman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent addition to Garfield historiography. Garfield has largely been overlooked in the annals of the presidency, a member of a relatively uninspiring run of chief executives and one who died early. There have been some rumblings about him--he once showed flashes of reform-mindedness and was at least staunchly anti-segregation, could he have been a game changing President? C.W. Goodyear takes up the challenge.

The Garfield that emerges from these pages is interesting and admirable but also very human. Goodyear does not fall into the trap of casting him in the role of fallen saint. His role in dispossessing a Pacific Northwest Indian tribe, his early marital issues and his willingness to bend with the political breeze on many issues all come up for discussion. Goodyear concludes that while Garfield seemed a firebrand early in his career, by the time of his presidency he had morphed into a uniter of factions--someone willing to compromise. For Goodyear, this seems to diminish him a bit. I'm not so certain it should. I think calling him out on his moral failings is only right and fair, but one wonders a bit if some of the decline of men like Garfield was due to the fact that they rose from Congress--a legislative body where the give and take of differing factions requires compromise. We prefer to think of our presidents taking bold stands and staring down the monsters of the day. But once upon a time we drew our leaders from the halls of Congress--a body that unfortunately tends to get more reviled than otherwise. Some of the disdain for Congress is deserved but some of it is because Americans are quickly abandoning the notion that popular government of a diverse country requires some give and take, some willingness to listen. Perhaps this could be the gift that Garfield's generation could give. I wish Goodyear had delved into this issue a bit more, but as a birth to death biography to reintroduce a flawed but fascinating man to our historical discussion, this book is an excellent place to start!

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough and interesting deep dive into James Garfield that tries to understand him, and I think finds that he’s basically unknowable.

This is a big and comprehensive overview of the whole period, because you find that Garfield plays a secondary or background role in most events. From the civil war to reconstruction and the political scandals of the gilded age, he’s there and active but he’s rarely THE guy. He had a long prominent career in congress in a time when they didn’t do a whole lot. In fact, his biggest accomplishment there might have been ending the first government shutdown.

But his actual political beliefs and character are pretty hard to know. The book makes a pretty strong argument that he was happy to ride the exact middle ground as often as he could. You’d be hard pressed to find a time when he did take a strong position. His early political days as a radical didn’t last long and from there he just moderated as often as he could.

Ultimately it’s what occurred in his death that is his biggest legacy. Being killed by a dangerous job seeker ensured that the corrupt spoils system would give way to radical civil service reform. And therein lies the revelation that reformers believed he was more valuable to the movement dead than alive—for he probably would have moderated whatever civil service reform to water it down. But the shock of his death combined with Chester A. Arthur’s change of heart brought upon the radical reform that changed the way employment in this country works.

[Stan Prager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered James A. Garfield in the course of my boyhood enthusiasm for philately with a colorful six-cent mint specimen, part of the 1922 series of definitive stamps dominated by images of American presidents. There was Garfield, an immense head in profile sporting a massive beard, encased in a protective mount on a decorative album page. I admired the stamp, even if I paid little mind to the figure it portrayed, just one of a number of undistinguished bearded or bewhiskered faces in the series. Except for the orange pigment of his portrait, he was otherwise colorless.
As I grew older, American history became a passion and presidential biographies a favored genre, but Garfield eluded me. Nor did I pursue him. I did occasionally stumble upon General Garfield in Civil War studies. And I was vaguely familiar with the fact that like Lincoln he was both born in a log cabin and murdered by an assassin, but he was in office for only a matter of months. I could recite from memory every American president in chronological order, and tell you something about each—but not very much about Garfield.
So it was that I came to President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier [2023], a detailed, skillfully executed, well-written, if uneven full-length biography by historian C.W. Goodyear. The Garfield that emerges in this treatment is capable, intellectual, modest, steadfast, and genial—but also dull … almost painfully dull. So much so that it is only the author’s talent with a pen that keeps the reader engaged. But even Goodyear’s literary skills—and these are manifest—threaten to be inadequate to the task of maintaining interest in his subject after a while.
That Garfield comes off so lackluster is strikingly incongruous to his actual life story, which at least partly seems plucked from a Dickens tale. Born in 1831 to a hardscrabble struggle in the Ohio backwoods that intensified when he lost his father at a very young age, he was raised by his strong-willed, religious mother who favored him over his siblings and encouraged his brilliant mind. He grew up tall, powerfully built, and handsome, with an unusually large head that was much remarked upon by observers in his lifetime. Like Lincoln, he was a voracious reader and autodidact. After a short-lived stint prodding mules as a canal towpath driver in his teens, his mother helped secure for him an avenue to formal education at a seminary, where he met his future wife Lucretia, whom he called “Crete.” Employed variously as a teacher, carpenter, preacher, and janitor, he worked his way first into Ohio’s Hiram College and then Williams College in Massachusetts, later returning in triumph to Hiram as its principal. He then entered politics as a member of the Ohio state legislature, until the outbreak of the Civil War found him with a colonel’s commission, fired by a passion for abolition to oppose the slave power. He demonstrated courage and acumen on the battlefield, and was promoted first to brigadier general, and then—after service in campaigns at Shiloh and Chickamauga—to major general. He left the army in 1863 and embarked on a career as Republican congressman that lasted almost two decades, until he won election as president of the United States. In the meantime, he also found time to practice law and publish a mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem. With a life like that, how is it that the living Garfield seems so lifeless?
Part of it is that in this account he seems nearly devoid of emotion. He makes few close friends. His relationship with Crete is conspicuous in the absence of genuine affection, and their early marriage marked by long separations that are agonizing for her but in Garfield provoke little but indifference; he eventually admits he does not really love her. A fleeting affair and the sudden loss of a cherished child finally bring them together, but in the throes of emotional turmoil he yet strikes as more calculating than crushed. If there is one constant to his temperament, it is a desire to navigate a middle path in every arena, ever chasing compromise, while quietly trying to have it both ways. In his first years of marriage, he demonstrates a determination to be husband and father without actually being physically present in either role. Likewise, this trait marks a tendency to moderate his convictions by convenience. The prewar period finds him a fervent proponent of abolition, but willing to temper that when it menaces harmony in his circles. Later, he is just as passionate for African American civil rights—that is, until that proves inelegant to consensus.
The book’s subtitle, From Radical to Unifier, more specifically speaks to Garfield’s shift from one of the “Radical Republicans” who advanced black equality and clashed with Andrew Johnson, to a congressman who could work across interparty enmity to achieve balance amid ongoing factional feuding. But “from radical to unifier” can also be taken as a larger metaphor of a trajectory for Garfield that smacks less of an evolution than a tightly wound tension that ever attempted to have that cake and eat it too. And since it is impossible to simultaneously be both “radical” and “unifier,” there is a hint that Garfield was always more bureaucrat than believer. But was he? Truthfully, it is difficult to know what to make of him much of the time. And it is not clear whether the blame for that should be laid upon his biographer or upon a subject so enigmatic he defies analysis.
Garfield indeed proves elusive; he hardly could have achieved so much success without an engine of ambition, but that drive remained mostly out of sight. As a major general in the midpoint of the Civil War, he stridently resisted calls to shed his uniform for Congress, but yet finally went to Washington. Almost two decades later, he stood equally adamant against efforts to recruit him as nominee for president, but ultimately ran and won the White House. Was he really so self-effacing, or simply expert at disguising his intentions? And what of his integrity? Garfield was implicated in the infamous Credit Mobilier scandal, but it did not stick. In an era marked by rampant political corruption, Garfield was no crook, but neither was he an innocent, trading certain favors for rewards when it suited him. Was he honest? Here we are reminded of what Jake Gittes, Jack Nicholson’s character in the film Chinatown, replied when asked that about a detective on the case: “As far as it goes. He has to swim in the same water we all do.”
For me, presidential biographies shine the brightest when they employ the central protagonist to serve as a focal point for relating the grander narrative of the historical period that hosted them. Think John Meacham, in Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Or Robert Caro, in The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. Or, in perhaps its most extreme manifestation, A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Sidney Blumenthal, where Lincoln himself is at times reduced to a series of bit parts. What those magnificent biographies have in common is their ability to brilliantly interpret not simply the lives that are spotlighted but also the landscape that each trod upon in the days they walked the earth. Unfortunately, this element is curiously absent in much of Goodyear’s President Garfield.
Garfield’s life was mostly centered upon the tumultuous times of Civil War and Reconstruction, but those who came to this volume with little familiarity of the era would learn almost nothing of it from Goodyear except how events or individuals touched Garfield directly. The war hardly exists beyond Garfield’s service in it. So too what follows in the struggle for equality for the formerly enslaved against the fierce resistance of Andrew Johnson, culminating in the battle over impeachment. Remarkably, Ulysses S. Grant, second to Lincoln arguably the most significant figure of the Civil War and its aftermath, makes only brief appearances, and then merely as a vague creature of Garfield’s disdain. And there is just a rough sketch of the disputed election that makes Rutherford B. Hayes president and brings an end to Reconstruction. Goodyear’s Garfield is actually the opposite of Blumenthal’s Lincoln: this time it is all Garfield and history is relegated to the cameo.
And then suddenly, unexpectedly, Goodyear rescues the narrative and the reader—and even poor Garfield—with a dramatic shift that stuns an unsuspecting audience and not only succeeds, but succeeds splendidly! It seems as if we have finally reached the moment the author has been eagerly anticipating. Garfield has little more than fifteen months to live, but no matter: this now is clearly the book Goodyear had long set out to write. Part of the reader’s reward for sticking it out is the deep dive into history denied in prior chapters.
Only fifteen years had passed since Appomattox, and the two-party system was in flux, reinventing itself for another era. The Democrats—the party of secession—were slowly clawing their way back to relevance, but Republicans remained the dominant national political force, often by waving the “bloody shirt.” Since the failed attempt to remove Johnson, the party had cooled in their commitment to civil rights, a reflection of a public that had grown weary of the plight of freedmen and longed for reconciliation. Fostering economic growth was the prime directive for Republicans, but so too was jealously guarding their power and privilege, as well as the entrenched spoils system that had begotten.
Party members had few policy differences, but yet fell into fierce factions that characterized what came to be a deadlocked Republican National Convention in 1880. The “Stalwarts” were led by flamboyant kingmaker Roscoe Conkling, who had long been locked in a bitter personal and political rivalry with James G. Blaine of the “Half-Breeds,” who sought the nomination for president. Garfield and the latter were on friendly terms, and had worked closely together in the House when Blaine had been Speaker, although Garfield was identified with neither faction. Conkling and the Stalwarts were Grant loyalists, and dreamed instead of his return to the White House. There were also reformers who coalesced around former Senator John Sherman. Garfield delivered the nominating speech for Sherman, but then—after thirty-five ballots failed to select a candidate—he himself ended up as the consensus “Dark Horse” improbably (and reluctantly) drafted as the Republican Party nominee! The ticket was rounded out with Chester A. Arthur, a Conkling crony, for vice president. Goodyear’s treatment of the drawn-out convention crisis and Garfield’s unlikely selection is truly superlative!
So too is the author’s coverage of Garfield’s brief presidency, as well as the theatrical foreshadowing of his death, as he was stalked by the unhinged jobseeker Charles J. Guiteau. Garfield prevailed in a close election against the Democrat, former Union General Winfield Scott Hancock. Once in office, Garfield refused to go along with Conkling’s picks for financially lucrative appointments, which sparked an extended stand-off that surprisingly climaxed with the Senate resignation of Conkling and his close ally Thomas “Easy Boss” Platt, asserting Garfield’s executive prerogative, striking a blow for reform, and upending Conkling’s legendary control over spoils. Meanwhile, homeless conman Guiteau, who imagined himself somehow personally responsible for Garfield’s election, grew enraged at his failure to be named to the Paris consulship, which he fantasized was his due, and plotted instead to kill the president. Guiteau proved both insane and incompetent; his bullets fired at point-blank range missed Garfield’s spine and all major organs.
Odds are that Garfield might have recovered, but the exploratory insertion of unwashed fingers into the site of the wound—more than once, by multiple doctors—likely introduced the aggressive infection that was to leave him in the lingering, excruciating pain he bore heroically until he succumbed seventy-nine days later. The reader fully experiences his suffering. It seems that Joseph Lister’s antiseptic methods, adopted across much of Europe, were scoffed at by the American medical community, which ridiculed the notion of invisible germs. For weeks, doctors continued to probe in an attempt to locate the bullet lodged within. In a fascinating subplot, a young Alexander Graham Bell elbowed his way in with a promising new invention that although unsuccessful in this case became prototype for the first metal detector. The nation grew fixated on daily updates to the president’s condition until the moment he was gone. He had been president for little more than six months, nearly half of it spent incapacitated, dying of his injuries. The tragedy of Garfield is mitigated somewhat by the saga of his successor: President Arthur astonished everyone when an unlikely letter stirred his conscience to abandon Conkling and embark on a reformist crusade.
While faults can be found, ultimately the author redeems himself and his work. The best does lie in the final third of the volume, which because of content and style is far more fast-paced and satisfying than that which precedes it, but that earlier material nevertheless sustains the entirety. Yes, those readers less acquainted than this reviewer with the Civil War and Reconstruction will at times have a tougher hill to climb placing Garfield’s life in appropriate context, but the careful study and trenchant analysis of the forces in play in Republican politics leading up to the 1880 nomination, as well as the underscore to the significance of a brief presidency too often overlooked, without doubt distinguishes Goodyear as a fine writer, researcher, and historian. President Garfield represents an important contribution to the historiography, and likely will be seen as the definitive biography for some time to come. As stamp values plummeted, I long ago liquidated my collection for pennies on the dollar, so I no longer own that six-cent Garfield, but now, thanks to Goodyear, I can boast a deeper understanding of the man’s life and his legacy.


Note: This edition came to me through an early reviewers’ program.

Note: I reviewed the Blumenthal Lincoln biography here: Review of: A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. I, 1809–1849, by Sidney Blumenthal

Review of: President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, by C.W. Goodyear – Regarp Book Blog https://regarp.com/2023/10/24/review-...

[Elizabeth Schroeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting biography of Garfield, whose presidency was only 200 days long. Much of the book, since his presidency was so short, focuses on his earlier life, military career and work in Congress. Once again, I'm struck by how corrupt this country's government has been from the very beginning.

Speaking of corruption -- it was particularly interesting to read that Hayes, president before Garfield, actually lost the election to Samuel Tilden, the Democratic candidate. Although allegedly this was decided by a Congressional committee created to settle the election (sound familiar?), according to Goodyear, the corruption that existed due to various backroom deals, bosses and power grabs, really is what pushed the committee over to Hayes' side. The compromise was that Tilden would concede and Hayes would withdraw troops from the South and then Reconstruction post-Civil War would be officially over.

This was done only a few other times in history, and always when the Republican candidate had lost the popular vote but the electoral votes were close (GW Bush, DJT, Hayes). But I digress.

Most of the book focused on relationships -- and rightly so, since it was the wheeling and dealing, as well as jockeying for appointments that faced Garfield throughout his career and right after he was elected. I would have liked to have learned more about his time in Congress -- there were highlights but I would have liked to have known what types of legislation they were able to work on (maybe they weren't given the chaos of Grant's presidency, and everything after). Anyway, that was one gap for me.

That aside, I found this book well-researched for what was available directly from Garfield, and very well-written.

[Gerry Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

C.W. Goodyear’s new biography President Garfield portrays a pleaser whose politics evolved from staunch Republican Radical to accommodationist who helped engineer the Hayes deal in 1877 that effectively abandoned Reconstruction and the 5 million ex-slaves who desperately relied on it. His presidency was so brief that its only highlight was his fight with NY Sen Roscoe Conkling —one of the most loathsome characters ever to haunt the halls of Congress—over the spoils control at the New York custom house. Garfield won that battle as Conkling self imploded in spectacular fashion, resigning his seat and being spurned for an expected reappointment by his Stalwart cronies in Albany. A disappointed job seeker and delusional activist Charles Guiteau gunned down the president at the DC Rail station. Garfield lingered for weeks and might have survived had it not been for the anti-antiseptic ministrations of his attending medical quacks led by Dr Bliss. The hapless Chester A Arthur succeeds but in a dramatic turnaround from his sycophantic Conkling past, signs the civil service reform act into law: the Pendleton Act of 1883. Garfield’s place in history seems modest at best.

[Big Otter Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4 stars. I am absolutely stunned by this book. We all know about President Garfield, he was elected, he was shot, Alexander Graham Bell turns up, Garfield dies. But, there is much, much more to the story. I consider myself an educated person but the depth of my lack of knowledge of our 20th President is staggering. C.W. Goodyear has written a meticulously researched and detailed biography that gives not just facts and history but a comprehensive view of one of our most interesting Presidents. His life before the White House was amazing-Garfield is up there with Teddy Roosevelt for "are you kidding me? He did what?" moments. As one of the four assassinated American Presidents, Garfield is the 'sleeper', never given the attention of the others but he richly deserves a book like this one. I highly recommend this book; I was engrossed in it for over three weeks.
A copy was given to me and here is my own opinion: get this book and read it!

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Destiny of the Republic”, this was not. I’ve wanted to learn more about Garfield ever since reading that book and realizing that he was quite a remarkable man and president, and his assassination was just as tragic and consequential as Lincoln’s. But I guess my standards on narrative nonfiction are too high, because this definitely falls into the “dry history book” category instead. I’m still giving it a good rating because it’s incredibly well-researched, but Garfield's story didn’t sing like it did in Candace Millard's version.

[Campbell Stites · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Garfield is a man that you really don’t know much about unless you are well versed in American politics, but he sure made an impact. Being killed, you lose so much of your legacy, and it hurts to see his magnificent life cut short. This book was incredibly well written and I can’t say enough good things about the author. Goodyear was able to articulate how Garfield went about life in such a personal manner and I really was captivated by his writing. For readability I’m going to give this a 9.5/10. Goodyear did a phenomenal job writing engaging chapters and I was able to fly through pages of this book like I feel like I barely have before. For depth, since it was a shorter life, Goodyear really focused on Garfield’s early life and his time in the house, but not as much as his 3 months of presidency (which makes sense). I’m not sure where he lacked so it is hard to knock him at all for depth, but I feel he could have done even more on Garfield’s long and successful time in the house, 8.5/10. For engagement, this is pretty interesting because I feel like Garfield’s life was not as entertaining as some of my recent reads, and he was very consistent in what he did, which made some of this writing rather mundane, but a lot of what the author wrote had me all in, but every book has those chapters… 8/10. Overall, this was a great recent biography on a man that I really think could have been great, with the well-spaced chapters and good character building, I would not hesitate to pick up another biography by C.W. Goodyear.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10. James A. Garfield is man who I believe could have been one of the nation’s best presidents if he wasn’t assassinated. His ideals were strong, humility in tact, and his plan (while not really ever even voiced), would have furthered American gilded age prosperity. His accomplishments are nothing crazy but very respectable. Born very poor in Ohio, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, paid himself through school, became a priest and a teacher, fought in the Civil War, served as a very powerful congressman, and was randomly tapped for the presidency, and won. He never lost anything in life, and that is a badass accomplishment. But with such a limited presidency there is only so much to name, 6.5/10. For “Great” scale, there is just something about Garfield that makes you want to see him do good for America. He had that pure desire to serve and work for our country. He was someone who didn’t shy away from duty, and when attacked, responded in a way that almost no one during this time would, with grace. So sad that a life like this was cut short, by an insane stalwart man, a product of the spoils system. But Garfield was great with the time he was given, 6/10. Overall, Garfield is someone that had such a short tenure that I can barely even rank. He would’ve been high if I had to guess, but other than civil service reform, he had nothing to show for with his 3 months in the white house. But, he is a man of honor and someone that should be remembered as man that everyone loved.

[Kenneth Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does any of this sound familiar, an elected president referred to as a de facto President, uncounted votes were said to have been thrown in the river, illegal immigration was a problem, civil rights were an issue, gerrymandering was not an uncommon method for removing a political rival? You might say the answer is yes. I am not referring to 2024, I am referring to the time in which James A. Garfield served the country in Congress for over 20 years elected in 1862 and ultimately elected in 1881 as the 20th President. As familiar as the above problems sound today, they were also being confronted in the time in which James Garfield lived and served.

I have read "The Destiny of the Republic" by Candace Millard which mostly covers the shooting and untimely death of Garfield. He is more widely known as the second President to be assassinated rather than for what he accomplished in a long political career. This book gives his entire life story from being raised in poverty by a widowed mother, Civil War hero, minister, educator, and politician.

Although his term as president was short, March 4, 1881 to September 19, 1881, his list of accomplishments includes a purge of corruption in the Post Office, advancing agriculture technology, civil rights for the freed slaves. He also advocated civil service reforms which were passed by Congress in 1883 following his death.

C. W. Goodyear has written a must read for those interested in presidential biographies and history. This book is a full and interesting account of Garfield's life and the inept medical treatment he received after being shot which ultimately ended his life.

[Billy Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As historical biographies of politicians go, this one was very well researched and written. If you liked Candace Millard's _Destiny of the Republic_ but yearn for more in-depth coverage of Garfield's background, personal life, political career before the presidency, and the Republican party between the Civil and the 1880s, this is the superior book. Millard is a gifted storyteller who writes with more intrigue, but Goodyear has written the definitive biography of this forgotten president. I predict it will not be supplanted for 30-50 years.

[Mark Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of James A. Garfield is the story of America’s Civil War and Reconstruction. Though the 20th president is something of a historical footnote, Goodyear brings him to life as an unflinching leader who faced many conflicts—many of which we still see today—with nobility and political prowess. The chapter epigraphs, being Shakespeare quotes found in Garfield’s journal, solidify this as an American tragedy; had he not been killed in his first months as president, Garfield could’ve been one of our greats.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook) This work looks at the life, primarily the political life, of one the lesser-known presidents in US history, James Garfield. Primarily where his term fit in history, during the later part of the 19th century, when the Executive Branch was arguably at its weakest, and given that he was barely in the job 6 months before his death (and much of that time was spent suffering due the horrid medical care he got after the initial shooting).

Yet, there was much more to Garfield’s career than just being the 2nd president assassinated in US history. He was a powerful force in the House of Representatives, one that was initially aligned with the Radical Republicans, who sought to make lasting changes via Reconstruction. His political pragmatism made him an attractive candidate for President when he ran after the single, ineffective term of Hayes.

This work offers some insight that a lot of people never had into the man. Yet, there is much left on the table. Once Goodyear starts down the path of Garfield’s political career, there is not much else on the personal side that counters that. Some of that is the nature of what correspondence was available, but certainly more could have been said about that aspect, if we are trying to increase knowledge of this relatively unknown figure. Still, for what it is, the work is solid and the audiobook is solid. Worth the read, if only because there are few other options out there.

[Mario Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography. Wow!

[Ray L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling story of the last president to have been born in log cabin and his path from the Western Reserve of Ohio to the White House. Goodyear quickly surveys that whirlwind path from the canals that opened the midwest, to Williams College (go Ephs!), to leading a college and a ministry, to becoming a Union general in the Civil War, to Congress, to his role in the contested 1876 election, and culminating as a compromise candidate of the Republican Party...all before being shot en route to his 25th college reunion! What kept me engaged, though, as Goodyear unpacks each of these phases (relying on journals and contemporaneous reporting to piece it together) is how so many of the issues —the ongoing effects of chattel slavery; federalism vs. states rights; civil service; unfettered capitalism and the role of money in elections; the role of new technologies; partisanship; etc.—echo through to today.

[Heath Kirkwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a big undertaking, and overall worth it. The area in KS where my family comes from is named for Garfield, and I’ve been curious. A recurring theme is that although his political leanings may have been a disagreement with others, his personableness was not a disagreement. This book is a deep resource. I will say that the first and last sections are not as smooth or interesting a read as the middle sections (Civil War-House Years). The author also takes on much more about Republicans past Lincoln and into Reconstruction, as well as their party machines. In other words, this is about Garfield and ALL that surrounds him.

[Dr. Alan Albarran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy Presidential biographies, so I was very pleased to receive this advance review copy of President Garfield by CW Goodyear to read. My thanks to the author, the publisher Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley.

James A. Garfield is a President most Americans know little about. My knowledge of Garfield was limited, although I had read Candace Millard's book Destiny of the Republic, and Scott Greenberger's The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur who succeeded Garfield after his assassination. The Millard book was a biography of both Garfield and his assassin; the Greenberger book was focused on Arthur and only briefly touched on Garfield. Ron Chernow's Grant biography also had some discussion of Garfield.

Author CW Goodyear has done a masterful job of telling the life story of James A Garfield, and it is a very good story. Garfield's term as President was only 199 days, the second shortest tenure in American history. But safe to say he was probably one of the most respected and revered men to hold the office due to his long career of service in the House (9 terms).

Goodyear provides a vivid recreation of Garfield's early years and upbringing. His father died when he was very young, and James and his family endured a hard life trying to raise crops in Ohio and maintain a modest family farm. The hard work ethic paid off, and as Garfield ascended in to adulthood he is able to attend college while working as a janitor at Hiram College. Garfield ponders a career in ministry before becoming a professor at Hiram.

We also learn about Garfield's service in the Civil War, which provided a launching point for his election to Congress. In fact, he earned the rank of General in the war and fought in several significant battles, further elevating his credentials.

Garfield's political career is portrayed as one of compromise and civil behavior, unlike what we currently have had for decades in Washington. He was a skillful and smart politician and established a strong reputation with both parties. He was not without "sin" and was involved in at least two controversies detailed by the author.

Garfield was the winner of the election of 1880 but his nomination was the real political story of that year. The Republicans were trying to hold the office held by Rutherford Hayes who promised to only serve one term when elected in 1876. On the Republican side there were two frontrunners for the nomination: James G. Blaine and Roscoe Conkling, two political rivals who both wanted the Presidency. The result was a deadlocked convention, and Garfield became the compromise candidate who finally won the nomination on the 36th ballot. Just as surprising was the choice of Chester Arthur as his running mate, a man who had his own political issues over patronage.

Garfield won the popular vote by a mere 10,000 votes but fared much better sweeping the north and midwestern states in the electoral college to beet Winfred Scott Hancock. Garfield headed to Washington with the goal of improving civil rights for Blacks and political reform of the nation. But all that would be cut violently short when Garfield was shot by a deranged Charles Guiteau.

Regretfully the doctors who treated the President did not yet understand the need for sterilized tools and gloves. His wound was repeatedly probed by fingers and instruments that introduced bacteria to his system. The result was a long and agonizing death that would have been avoided in modern times. Garfield contracted sepsis and over the next few weeks his condition deteriorated.

Garfield is a tragic President, and after reading this biography you can't help but wonder what kind of leader he would have been had he lived. Given his preparation and intelligence and his personality I think Garfield could have been a great President. But he is sadly remembered today as the second President to die by an assassin if he is remembered at all.

This is a good book for lovers of history and Presidents. I highly recommend this book if these topics are of interest to you.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, thoroughly researched, and astonishingly relevant.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding