Little known president James Garfield is the main character in this work of nonfiction.  Although he was reluctant to be elected president, Garfield was the ideal leader for The United States in 1881.  He was smart, empathetic and unselfish.  Four months after taking office he was shot twice by a delusional man.  While he clung to life,  with one bullet still embedded in him, Garfield was under the care of a less than stellar doctor.  Also involved in this drama was Alexander Graham Bell, who was hastily inventing a machine that could locate the bullet that was making the president sicker and sicker.

Destiny of the Republic is one of the books I’ve been meaning to read since it was published eight years ago.  It is interesting, informative, and at times exciting.  A lot of the politics occurring in 1881 can be compared to what is going on in our country today.