A young, charismatic and compassionate president, Garfield died just six months after his inauguration.

This book is a page-turner for political junkies that details how former and future presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and FDR all had their eyes on the White House prize prior to the election a century ago.Ĭandace Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President tells the story of the life and death of James Garfield, who was shot by Charles Guiteau, a religious fanatic and thwarted office-seeker, in 1881.

Harding died in office in 1923, and Coolidge became president. In 1920, Republican Warren Harding and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, won a landslide election over Democrat James Cox and a young Franklin Roosevelt, even though Harding had been dogged by “birtherism” accusations that he had Black ancestry. His 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents is a compelling true story of an election a century ago that still has relevance to today’s political scene. Historian David Pietrusza has written absorbing and readable volumes about American politics, sports and crime that bring the past to life today. I recommend all of them for holiday reading or gift giving. Here are just a few books that I have read or re-read in the past year. The holiday season is at hand, now that December is here, and books always make great gifts for Christmas and Hanukkah. He was right, but the COVID-19 pandemic has, despite all its horrors, at least given people more time to read. “So many books, so little time,” said musician Frank Zappa.

Mayday 1971 by Lawrence Roberts