Having rendered himself socially isolated, with only occasional help from his brother and sister, his mind proved adept at helping him scrape by on the edges of religious fervor and brash cunning. He had been identified as one several times, housed in more than one mental hospital and released at least one too many times.

Guitreau was only incidentally, accidentally an office seeker.

The battle that should have been should have been Civil Service reform and the end of the spoils system. An honest counter weight to the powerful party boss, Sen. This aspect of his failed personality is important because Garfield would have been at the early start of Civil Service reform. Given this rush to the next chapter, Charles Guitreau is shrugged off as a frustrated office seeker. A rushed mention of the reconstruction a few dates inventions briefest admission that all was not upright between the White world and the Red prior owners of the wild west railroads, depressions and all of a sudden a Roosevelt and then War. In the overly rushed high school books, the entire period between The Civil war and the First World War is rarely given more than a few pages. A very early case arguing the importance of making mental health care as available as the easy purchase of firearms. In very sharp contrast Garfield is documented as a self-made, highly motivated, intelligent and educated, war hero, educator effortless made first a congressman and later, against his will president. She shows us a James Garfield as a man who could have been if not our best president, certainly a man who represented the best of us. her’s is well researched, highly accessible and if not deeply analytical, she has more than covered the basics. Of Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, I will remember much. Of that first bio, I remember next to nothing, not even the name. What may be his first decent, academically thoughtful bio was just published this month. Over many years I have read biographies of almost every President, in order, up to Ford. This is not my first biography of James Garfield.

Destiny of the republic book