On Wednesday, January 29, our entire group converged upon Diana’s home
for an early February book discussion.
With an abundant Meyer lemons crop this year, Diana prepared some lemony
delicious dishes including a dessert that was the perfect marriage of a lemon bar
and a pie – yum!
Summary:
This non-fiction book was written to expose the modern day reader to
the behind-the-scenes events in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s which
ultimately led to the death of President James Garfield. Through extensive research, Ms. Millard
constructs a fascinating historical record of the election and assassination of
a president who only spent a few months in office.
Comments:
This story had all the ingredients of a best-selling fictional novel --
a world famous inventor, a madman, political villains, medical science
breakthroughs, and a kindhearted man whose life was cut short by a lunatic’s
bullet and inept doctors – except this is a true story!
It was interesting to see how our political
system has evolved from its early beginnings. The overt corruption and strong-arm tactics were disappointing, while the drama of the conventions was thrilling. It’s a shame that the practice of granting the citizens access to the
president, which made perfect sense to a nation which had not that long ago
broken free of the monarch’s rule, is one of the reasons that we lost a few of
our U.S. presidents to assassinations.
Our resident medical expert was most disturbed by the ego of
the book's medical professionals which kept them from ever considering options which
may have saved President Garfield, including Alexander Bell’s liberal use of his metal detector to locate the bullet and sterilization of medical tools. Joseph Lister
had unsuccessfully tried to convince American doctors to sterilize everything
when dealing with open wounds. Although
an accepted practice at that time among European doctors and medical
facilities, their American counterparts were slow to believe in the importance
of antisepsis – preventing infection by destroying germs - a concept which has saved millions of lives. More than twenty years after Garfield’s
death, the American ambassador to England shared these words at the Royal
Society: “My lord,” the ambassador said,
addressing Lister as he sat in an opulent hall, surrounded by powerful men and
celebrated scientists, “it is not a profession, it is not a nation, it is
humanity itself which, with uncovered head, salutes you.” (p. 259 – Kindle)
What a tragedy to lose a president who believed in equality for the
newly freed slaves and who had a desire to work with men from both political parties.
He could have made much needed positive
changes for a nation which was still deeply wounded from a destructive civil war. President Garfield was a loving husband, father,
and loyal friend who even on his death bed as he suffered through intense pain
evoked this heartfelt tribute: “Even as
he lay dying, Garfield was kind, patient, cheerful, and deeply grateful.” (p.
227 – Kindle)
Memorable Quote:
We loved President Garfield’s quotes which were placed at the beginning
of each of the new chapters. Here are a
couple of our favorites:
“Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material
universe and…demonstrated the power, wisdom, and goodness of God; but we know
of no one who has demonstrated the same attributes from the history of the
human race.” (p. 48 – Kindle)
“I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the
characters of men are moulded and inspired by what their fathers have done.”
(p. 173 – Kindle)
FAB Rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)
What an interesting time for our nation. We all learned so much from this book. This
story is well written, thoroughly documented and presented in a way which made
this reader want to keep reading in the hopes that the president would
eventually survive, even though I knew the ending! If Ms. Millard had been my high school
American History teacher, I am pretty sure I would not have daydreamed as much
as I did in that class!
