Over the course of United States history, four different presidents have been assassinated in office. None of these assassinations have occurred in the past fifty years, making these intricate plots for political murder seem so far away to many. In Sarah Vowell’s nonfiction book, Assassination Vacation, she takes the reader on a road trip—a pilgrimage, as she calls it—exploring the assassinations of U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley. In the preface to her book, Vowell explains that these presidents, victims to some of the nation's most notorious assassinations, “can seem so long gone, so dead,” making it difficult for one to envision them as actual human beings that were killed by another person (11). She hopes to change this lack of connection her audience feels towards the victims of political murder and the important individuals in United States history.…