Potus Geeks Book Review: President Garfield-From Radical to Unifier

[kensmind]

James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, held the office for just 200 days, and spent the last 80 of those days in agony, after being shot by a crazed office seeker. He would ultimately die from a combination of his gunshot wounds as well as negligent medical treatment, and is considered to be the second President to be assassinated

Comments

[gm_1787]

Excellent review. I look forward to reading President Garfield after finishing up Robert Norton Smith's An Ordinary Man (Gerald Ford). It is a wonderful book which should be the definitive book on Ford for some time.

[kensmind]

I followed this one up by Jake Tapper's latest novel (which I also reviewed) and am now reading The Last Honest Man, a biography of Senator Frank Church by James Risen

Finished

[gm_1787]

I finally finished Garfield and can agree with your review. This is a great biography which brought Garfield's era to life. It made me want to go out and stock up on a couple Conkling biographies. Blaine has a 4-0 lead in the library.

One of the interesting parts was the coverage of the 1876 election results. I read so many pages and went 'this sounds exactly like 2020.'

Re: Finished

[kensmind]

I'll have to go back and check, but I think I have one Conkling bio and three about Blaine. (One is a book about Blaine and John Logan). Goodyear's great writing make this book so much better, not that Garfield doesn't have an interesting life story to start with.