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Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
Candice Millard
#UE7832
Hardcover, 339 pages; 2011
$23.16
Believing he was on a mission from God to assassinate the president, Charles Guiteau shot James A. Garfield in the back on July 2, 1881. The first doctors on the scene, frantic to remove the bullet from Garfield's body, inserted their unsterilized fingers into the president's wound. His medical care during the remaining eighty days of his life did not improve as American doctors had yet to widely accept the existence of germs or understand infection. In desperation, his doctors even summoned Alexander Graham Bell to test a prototype metal detector in order to find the rogue bullet. Bringing to vivid life the astonishing tale of the agonizing demise of a great man who could have been a great president, Candice Millard has written a gripping story of ego, delusion, and ambition--and a series of events that altered the course of the United States.
(CHH)
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