Among the best

James Garfield; a man of character and politician.

He seems fully involved in the subject.

If time allowed.

Excellent, well researched book. Fine reading performance. Overall optimal.

I highly recommend this book. Not only will you be surprised at the origin of the expression "ignorance is bliss," you will also gain knowledge about William McKinley. The most citizens know about this American President is that he was assassinated, but his life and times were fascinating. This was an easy read and will be hard to forget! Candice Millard presented a skillful, interesting true story.

Provoking thought, exciting

Have not found one yet

For me it is easier to follow a story if I can hear it, his voice helps me follow what is happening.

I like most history. This book talks about one of our presidents and his thought process while in the white house.

A very good read.

Wow - I was blown away by this book. It is GREAT. If you're on the fence, get it.

I’d don’t think I’ve ever listened to—or read—a book with so many awwww moments. It’s packed with real people doing things worthy of a Hollywood movie script: Inventing the first air-conditioner, for example, to ease a dying president’s discomfort in a steamy White House. Meanwhile Alexander Graham Bell amazes as he struggles to develop new technology in time to save a President’s life. But he’s only one of the historical figures we merely thought we knew. Chief among those saying and doing remarkable things is President James A. Garfield who’s clearly the brightest, the bravest, and the best of his generation. Before this book I knew Garfield was assassinated and nothing more. By the final chapter I was mourning his death with the rest of the nation in 1881.

It's hard for me to overstate how much I enjoyed this audiobook. The story is always intriguing, even surprising at times. Even someone not much interested in history will find a lot to enjoy here. It reads like a thriller, despite the fact that the whole world already knows how it ends. And the narration is superb.

In fact, if I had to find a fault with this performance (and this would be nitpicking), it's that the narrator is almost distractingly good. He has a perfectly clear and commanding voice. The book requires a wide variety of accents, both male and female characters, and a general late-nineteenth-century tone, and he handles them all with an impressive fluency. So much so that I sometimes found myself marveling at his skills instead of paying attention to the story.

And when I got back to the story, I marveled again at the author's remarkable knack for knowing exactly which direction to take, which details to mine from what was surely a huge amount of research. It feels like not a word is wasted, and nothing significant is missing. The language is straightforward but not artless, and the overall result is completely satisfying. In short, this audiobook is just downright excellent.

This was a very surprising story, as I didn't know the details of the assassin and of what the "doctors" did to hasten Garfield's death.

Yes, and I tried.

Yes - didn't know much about President Garfield or who and why he died. Fascinating about the invention of xrays and the current medicine of the time which did not involve making sure the medical instruments were sterilized.

President Garfield. Didn't know much about him and found he could have been one of the better/greater presidents had he lived longer. Died like he lived, with grace and his way.

Some of my favorites were the ones with Alexander Graham Bell as he rushed to try and create the first xray type machines so he could help find the bullet before Garfield died.

Yes

There were so many different characters including the one who shot Garfield and the backgrounds of him and others. Fascinating as to the number of different events going on at the same time that shows we aren't so far ahead in some things as we were then.

Yes - didn't know much about President Garfield or who and why he died. Fascinating about the invention of xrays and the current medicine of the time which did not involve making sure the medical instruments were sterilized.

President Garfield. Didn't know much about him and found he could have been one of the better/greater presidents had he lived longer. Died like he lived, with grace and his way.

Some of my favorites were the ones with Alexander Graham Bell as he rushed to try and create the first xray type machines so he could help find the bullet before Garfield died.

Yes

There were so many different characters including the one who shot Garfield and the backgrounds of him and others. Fascinating as to the number of different events going on at the same time that shows we aren't so far ahead in some things as we were then.

The intertwining of the stories about Garfield, Bell, Bliss, Conkling and Guiteaux is done superbly. The involvement of Bell and his own thoughts about his inventions were totally new to me and give the biography an unsuspected depth.

The description of the struggle for reform of the civil service, i.e. the power of the spoils system. It never occurred to me that patronage was that decisive a factor in American political life in the 19th century.

The different voices, pitches and accents of the main characters in the biography is well done, and never annoyes.

The description of the treatment of the wounded Garfield and the ignoring of Listers concept of anti-scepsis by the doctors. The passage about how to prevent Garfield from being killed at the hand of his doctors is great.