Garfield

Garfield – by Allan Peskin

It saddens me that I would have never discovered this book had I not set out to read at least one biography of every U.S. President.  Why would anyone, apart from a distant relative, really want to read a book on James Garfield?  Looking at his life and presidency, it was rather dreary and highly inconsequential, yet Allan Peskin manages to write an incredibly engaging account of a man who really never comes across as exciting nor stimulating.  On that note, just who the heck is Allan Peskin?  I had to search rather deep on Google just to find minute information on the man (sadly, after much digging, I found out that he recently passed away).  So it’s almost a double whammy that an unknown author can write a book on a minor president and have it be incredibly engaging.  One wishes that Peskin would have penned more volumes on more notable figures.

Even if you have heard of James Garfield, you probably are unaware of the name Charles Guiteau. You’re probably also unaware that Garfield’s presidency lasted a mere four months.  This is because Guiteau assassinated Garfield very early on during Garfield’s tenure in office.  At the risk of sounding morbid, this is about the most exciting thing that seemed to happen in Garfield’s life. He simply wasn’t that dynamic of an individual.  He lived during a time when candidates were chosen by delegates in smoky rooms of national conventions. Garfield is chosen as the 1880 candidate mainly as a compromise. None of the other candidates are really up to the job. It’s not that there isn’t anyone else qualified, it’s just that there isn’t anyone else where there is any sort of consensus as to who can win the big election come November.

So Garfield is chosen. He basically doesn’t want the job, but being the good soldier, he rises to the challenge. On a related note, it was considered improper and uncouth for presidential candidates to do their own campaigning. So Garfield mainly stays at home during the presidential race. Such simpler times.

Speaking of being a ‘good soldier’, Garfield was also a general in the Union army during the Civil War. Again, most don’t know that – nor even know his name when historians discuss the great battles. Still, the author does a superb job of making the military years come alive in this book, even though there really wasn’t that much interesting to say.

After reading this book, I think I would describe the words ‘introverted’ and ‘cerebral’ to describe James Garfield. He was definitely the intelligent sort, and the only time where this book seemed to get a bit bogged down was when it went into detail of Garfield’s younger years – first as an apt student, and later as a teacher. James Garfield had a lot of wit and musings during this time of his life, yet it became a bit of chore to read about his constant observations and cogitations of his younger years. 

After the Civil War is when Garfield goes into politics, and each chapter of this portion of the book is dedicated to each of his terms in office. Again, his term as a U.S. Congressmen isn’t very eventful, yet one imagines that the reason he keeps getting reelected is because people prefer inelegance to flair. Politics wore out the average voter in those days as well.

He also seemed a bit of a moody fellow. He seemed more miserly than happy, didn’t seem particularly close to his family, and seemed to always be suffering from some sort of illness that seemed more suited for someone much older than him at the particular stage of his life.

Perhaps it was the author’s ability to detail the time period and the events so well that made this such a rewarding read. Although Garfield didn’t seem to have much excitement emulating from himself, there certainly was a lot of calamity in the current times of politics, so one feels as though the time and money spend on this book was well spent.

This book was written in 1978. It seems that any time a biography of well-known individual is written, a new one is written every quarter of a century or so for some reason.  I’ve never quite figured this out. Maybe more information about the subject becomes available over time?  Somehow, though, I’m not sure we’ll ever see another biography of James Garfield. That’s quite all right, though. This book was wonderful and needs no substitute.