Dark Horse: the Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield

James Garfield’s 1880 dark horse nomination for president after the longest-ever Republican convention, his victory in the closest-ever presidential popular vote, his struggle against feuding factions once elected, and its climax of violence, all produced one of the most dramatic presidential odysseys of the Gilded Age. The era’s decency is seen contrasted against sharp partisanship, hauntingly familiar to modern America. But in this case, it ended in the pistol shots of assassin Charles Guiteau. “[This] story has it all, and, in the telling, it has suspense, humor and insight…. Tom Clancy couldn’t make up an assassin like [Guiteau]. An obscure part of the national past comes into the light, brilliantly.” —Palm Beach Post “Ackerman relates with gusto and fizz the story of Garfield ’s unanticipated nomination, his election by a whisker, the travails of his few months in office, and his assassination.” —Publishers Weekly