Far from simply being a president who was assassinated weeks after taking office, James Garfield might be the most accomplished American statesman of the 19th century says author C.W. Goodyear. Drawing on his new book, President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, Goodyear offers a portrait of a man born in a log cabin who by his twenties had become a respected preacher, state senator, and college president. Soon Garfield was the youngest general fighting for the Union, and before the Civil War’s end was its youngest congressman—as well as one of its most forward-looking.
He helped establish equal citizenship and voting rights for Black Americans and became one of the most powerful leaders of the postwar Republican Party. By 1880, Garfield was the minority leader of the House, a practicing Supreme Court attorney, the founder of the Department of Education, the creator of a proof of the Pythagorean theorem, a senator-elect, and (unwillingly) the Republican nominee for president.
Join Goodyear as he shines a spotlight on a forgotten president and progressive statesman who tried both to improve an America in political and cultural flux and keep it intact throughout a contentious time.
Copies of President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier (Simon & Schuster) are available for purchase.
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