Review Of Candice Millard's Destiny Of The Republic

In the book “Destiny of the Republic” Candice Millard goes into great detail describing the main characters in this story that recounts the details of President James Garfield’s tragic death only months after taking office. James Garfield, Roscoe Conkling, Charles Guiteau and Dr. Bliss were some of the characters that interwove together, each with their own backgrounds to tell a bigger story. How these characters intersected would change history. I did thoroughly enjoy the historical portion of this book and thought it was an enjoyable way to learn. My difficulty with the book, is that the author tends to associate the characters to be either good or bad. In my point of view, life is rarely that simple. There are two sides to every story, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. When reading about these characters, I’m constantly thinking about what made them a hero, or corrupt, or even insane. To categorize someone simply as negative or positive is an injustice. Was James Garfield only a hero? Was Roscoe Conkling only a corrupt bully? Was Charles Guiteau only insane? Millard clearly had her opinion on these characters, but what if I were to play Devil’s Advocate? …show more content…
He is portrayed in a way that his mistakes were barely mentioned and glazed over. A great friend, politician and fearless leader, dedicated father, husband and war hero. I feel like the overall point of this book was to bring to light a very admirable man. But the fact that he had an affair that was breezed over in a few paragraphs, seemed a bit biased that only his positive traits and not many of his negative traits were written about. If Millard would have told more of the faults of James Garfield, it would have made a more believable biography. I do b1elieve by her writings that James Garfield was a great man and did great and inspiring things, however I would have appreciated a more well-rounded account, thorns and