Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Candice Millard's history follows James A. Garfield, a scholar and Civil War veteran who rose from poverty to win the presidency in 1880, only to be shot months into his term by Charles Guiteau, a delusional office seeker. The bullet was only part of the story. Over the following weeks, Garfield's doctors probed the wound without regard for the antiseptic methods Joseph Lister had been urging, while Alexander Graham Bell worked feverishly on a device that might locate the bullet. Weaving together the lives of the president, his assassin and the inventor, Millard shows how medical arrogance, political rivalry and a still-fragile nation shaped one of the strangest deaths in American history. The book won the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.