Summer Reading for Potus Geeks: Candice Millard
Candice Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic. She has written two books of interest for 
potus_geeks and they are both exceptional.
Millard's first presidential themed work, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, was published in 2005. It is a history of the Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition that Theodore Roosevelt made to the Amazon Rainforest in 1913 and 1914. This book was a New York Times Best Seller. After his election defeat in 1912, a contest in which Roosevelt lost the nomination of the Republican Party and ran as a Progressive, TR set his sights on a most punishing physical challenge. He decided to make the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Along with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and facing starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt even contemplated suicide. An injury Roosevelt sustained became infected with flesh-eating bacteria and left the ex-president so weak that, at his lowest moment, he told his son Kermit to leave him to die in the rainforest. Millard's book is an outstanding retelling of these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller.
Millard's second presidential themed book, is Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (reviewed here in this community). It was released in September 2011, and is also a New York Times Best Seller. This book tells the story of a little known and forgotten part of American history, the assassination of President James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. Although history appears to have forgotten Garfield's brief tenure as President, Millard reminds us of what an able leader Garfield was and the tremendous potential for his administration. It provides insight into what a courageous, moral and intellectually gifted man he was. She gives us a glimpse of Garfield the good family man, the enemy of cronyism and tells us about the world in which he lived. She also writes about the conditions which placed Garfield in the White House in spite of his apparent lack of desire for the job, and about his political battle with New York Senator and political boss Roscoe Conklin and his Stalwart faction as Garfield sought to replace the spoils system with one in which important government positions are obtained based on merit.
Millard describes what it must have been like in Washington on July 2, 1881 to observe the shooting of President Garfield as he sought to board a train with the members of his cabinet. The book allows the reader to experience the mood of the city and of the nation as they learn of the shooting. The book goes on to describe in interesting detail several aspects of this historical event: the path of the mentally unbalanced assassin Charles Guiteau both before and after the shooting, the medical incompetence of the doctors who treated Garfield (especially the egotistical and controlling "Dr. Doctor Bliss"), Roscoe Conklin's fall from political grace and the resulting humiliation, the conversion of Vice-President Chester Alan Arthur from sycophantic Stalwart to independent reformer, the story of inventor Alexander Graham Bell's effort to invent a device to locate the bullet lodged inside of Garfield, and the rejection of Dr. Joseph Lister's discovery of sterilization and its subsequent vindication. Most importantly, she captures the mood of the nation as it suffers collectively along with its suffering leader, and how north and south set aside past grievances to mourn for their slain President.
Both of these books make for excellent summer reading, not only for their fascinating stories, but also because of Millard's exceptional abilities as a story-teller and a historian.
potus_geeks and they are both exceptional. Millard's first presidential themed work, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, was published in 2005. It is a history of the Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition that Theodore Roosevelt made to the Amazon Rainforest in 1913 and 1914. This book was a New York Times Best Seller. After his election defeat in 1912, a contest in which Roosevelt lost the nomination of the Republican Party and ran as a Progressive, TR set his sights on a most punishing physical challenge. He decided to make the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Along with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and facing starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt even contemplated suicide. An injury Roosevelt sustained became infected with flesh-eating bacteria and left the ex-president so weak that, at his lowest moment, he told his son Kermit to leave him to die in the rainforest. Millard's book is an outstanding retelling of these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller.
Millard's second presidential themed book, is Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (reviewed here in this community). It was released in September 2011, and is also a New York Times Best Seller. This book tells the story of a little known and forgotten part of American history, the assassination of President James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. Although history appears to have forgotten Garfield's brief tenure as President, Millard reminds us of what an able leader Garfield was and the tremendous potential for his administration. It provides insight into what a courageous, moral and intellectually gifted man he was. She gives us a glimpse of Garfield the good family man, the enemy of cronyism and tells us about the world in which he lived. She also writes about the conditions which placed Garfield in the White House in spite of his apparent lack of desire for the job, and about his political battle with New York Senator and political boss Roscoe Conklin and his Stalwart faction as Garfield sought to replace the spoils system with one in which important government positions are obtained based on merit.
Millard describes what it must have been like in Washington on July 2, 1881 to observe the shooting of President Garfield as he sought to board a train with the members of his cabinet. The book allows the reader to experience the mood of the city and of the nation as they learn of the shooting. The book goes on to describe in interesting detail several aspects of this historical event: the path of the mentally unbalanced assassin Charles Guiteau both before and after the shooting, the medical incompetence of the doctors who treated Garfield (especially the egotistical and controlling "Dr. Doctor Bliss"), Roscoe Conklin's fall from political grace and the resulting humiliation, the conversion of Vice-President Chester Alan Arthur from sycophantic Stalwart to independent reformer, the story of inventor Alexander Graham Bell's effort to invent a device to locate the bullet lodged inside of Garfield, and the rejection of Dr. Joseph Lister's discovery of sterilization and its subsequent vindication. Most importantly, she captures the mood of the nation as it suffers collectively along with its suffering leader, and how north and south set aside past grievances to mourn for their slain President.
Both of these books make for excellent summer reading, not only for their fascinating stories, but also because of Millard's exceptional abilities as a story-teller and a historian.