Comment by waldrews
Garfield was in many ways the most personally appealing and brilliant of the American presidents, rising from poverty and obscurity by being absurdly talented across many fields and eloquent.
He was assassinated early and barely got to serve. The story of his life, the shooting, and the subsequent medical drama (featuring even a cameo by Alexander Graham Bell improvising a diagnostic device) are so epic you have to wonder if time travelers are messing with us.
His legacy was the nonpartisan professional civil service, a key part of his agenda that his successor felt obligated to carry out, an accomplishment that recently came under particularly heavy attack.
Netflix just came out with the miniseries about him, 'Death by Lightning,' based on the book 'Destiny of the Republic.' His earlier life is featured prominently in '1861: The Civil War Awakening' by Adam Goodheart. There are a few great C-SPAN/Book TV videos by some of the authors that tell the story concisely and convey why some of us are so fascinated by that history.
The Netflix miniseries was very funny and engaging, but I can’t help but to think that it over-valorizes Garfield as some sort of fallen benevolent sage-king in the same way Oliver Stone’s JFK and other Camelot hagiographies do.
The man was not above the corrupt politics of the day, at least earlier in his career, after all.