The Ranch Librarian Reads: Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard

I am a picky non-fiction reader. I really am. Fiction? I’m pretty loose and indiscriminate, honestly. I’ll pick up fiction with the rapidity of a hoarder in a flea market.

But not-so-much on the non-fiction reading. I blame Erik Larson for this, honestly. I picked up a copy of Devil in the White City back in 2012 and read it in a little over a day. I couldn’t remember encountering an author who wrote non-fiction so seamlessly in prose that read like a novel, and I was hooked.

*Side note: If you haven’t read Devil in the White City, please do. It’s amazing. As is Larson’s most recent work, Dead Wake, which fascinated me as he wove together the Lusitania’s final crossing of the Atlantic*

So I met Destiny of the Republic with a little skepticism when my grandfather sent it to me. He lauded the book, first and foremost, because it Millard is a woman, and he’s got his own hang up about female authors. But he mailed me a copy, along with a list of reasons he loved it (there were 10 bullet points), and I dutifully placed the book on my “To-Read” shelf (yes, I have a whole shelf dedicated to books that I need to read).

However, I never expected to find that once I picked up Destiny, I would hardly be able to put it back down again.

Seriously.

For book junkies like me, that sucked-into-the-story feeling of a really good book is like chasing a high: if the book I have in hand doesn’t serve it up relatively quickly, I am often disinclined to continue. And it seems that non-fiction, well-meaning though it may be, is like that: it doesn’t compel me, so I move on.

But not Destiny.

I found the story of James A. Garfield’s strange and incredible ascent to the Presidency to be fascinating, particularly as it was woven in with the stories of Charles Guiteau (his assassin), Alexander Graham Bell (who nearly killed himself trying to devise a machine that could “hear” the bullet in Garfield’s back), and Willard Bliss (the doctor who staked his life and reputation on saving the President).

Millard’s research shines brightly throughout each chapter, laid out neatly in prose that’s not only functional but beautiful as well. And that research highlights such an interesting and little-known story from American history, a story that was incredibly influential to the making of America as it is now.

Plus, there are a lot of stories about former Presidents that are meant to romanticize them, or make them into far greater figures than they were. But James Garfield was a humble man, filled with humility from the very start, and a very intelligent man. He was self-educated largely, until he went to college, and he was so impressive there that he was asked back to teach.

His nomination as the Republican Presidential Candidate at the 1880 National Convention was a huge surprise, and an appointment that he tried heartily to turn down. He united a country post Civil War that was most certainly at odds, and he only served 6 months in office. That’s a pretty impressive story.

So if you are a non-fiction reader and interested in American History, this wonderful book is a great winter read.