I am a presidential historian with a particular focus on their deaths, public mourning, and the places we commemorate them. My interest in what I like to think of as âthe final chapter of each presidentâs amazing storyâ grew out of frustration with traditional biographies that end abruptly when the president dies, and I believe my books pick up where others leave off. More than a moribund topic, I find the presidential deaths and public reaction to be both fascinating and critical to understanding their humanity and place in history at the time of their passing and how each of their legacies evolved over time.
I wrote
The President Is Dead!: The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond
Candace Millard is an expert at the historianâs craft. Her dramatic prose read more like a novel and captivated me from the first page.
I also appreciated how she elevated a previously little-known episode and widely forgotten president in American history, opening the door to consider how our national story could have been different had President Garfieldâs full potential been realized.
She inspired me to become a writer and continues to inspire me to this day.Â
NATIONAL BESTSELLER ⢠The extraordinary account of James Garfield's rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from the bestselling author of The River of Doubt.  James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. GarfieldâŚ
Fifty years after its publication, this book remains a classic.
As a historian of Presidential deaths, I appreciate the deep and detailed research of Grant's tragic and triumphal final year. Pitkinâs book is all the more impressive because he bucked popular sentiment at a time when Grantâs reputation was at a nadir due to the popularity of the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Pitkin practically places the reader in Grantâs New York brownstone and the Mount McGregor cottage as the heroic general completes his memoirs while enduring immense pain to provide financial security for his family.
This book helps explain why the public honored Ulysses Grant with the largest tomb ever built in American history, before or since.Â
Early in 1885 Americans learned that General Grant was writing his Memoirs in a desperate race for time against an incurable cancer. Not generally known was the General's precarious personal fi nances, made so by imprudent invest ments, and his gallant effort to provide for his family by his writing. For six months newspaper readers followed the dramatic contest, and the hearts of Americans were touched by the General's last battle. Grant's last year was one of both per sonal and literary triumph in the midst of tragedy, as Thomas M. Pitkin shows in this memorable and inspiring book. TheâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
April 1865 was one of the most consequential months in American history. After the fall of Richmond and Leeâs surrender to effectively end the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was tragically assassinated while Jefferson Davis attempted to escape to keep the war effort alive.
I was riveted by the dual history of the American and Confederate presidents, as Swansonâs storytelling matches the drama, tension, and uncertainty of the moment.
On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received the telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time - the Yankees are coming. That evening, shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital. But in two weeks time, John Wilkes Booth would assassinate the president, and the nation was convinced that Davis was the mastermind of the crime. No longer merely a traitor, Davis became a murderer, a wanted man with a one-hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on his head. Over the course of several weeks, Union cavalry led anâŚ
While Candace Millardâs epic book of 20th President James Garfieldâs assassination helped bring the old story to a new audience, 25th President William McKinleyâs assassination remains little known. Beloved in his time, perhaps McKinleyâs light was dimmed in the long shadow of his larger-than-life successor, Theodore Roosevelt, but itâs a story that people should know, and Scott Miller tells it masterfully.
Millerâs book illuminates the first tragedy of the new century and deserves a spot on the bookshelves of anyone interested in American history.
A SWEEPING TALE OF TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY AMERICA AND THE IRRESISTIBLE FORCES THAT BROUGHT TWO MEN TOGETHER ONE FATEFUL DAY  In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassinâs bullet shattered the nationâs confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century. The President and the Assassin is the story of the momentous years leading up to that event, and of the very different paths that brought together two of the most compelling figures of theâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
Robert Klara provides so much detail and insight that itâs like he was on Franklin Rooseveltâs funeral train, crouched down in the seat behind the new president, Harry S. Truman!Â
I was super impressed by Klaraâs research and ability to capture the conversations and historical nuances of one of the most important train rides of the twentieth century.Â
In April 1945, the funeral train carrying the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked on a three-day, thousand-mile odyssey through nine states before reaching the president's home where he was buried. Many who would recall the journey later would agree it was a foolhardy idea to start with - putting every important elected figure in Washington on a single train during the biggest war in history. For the American people, of course, the funeral train was just that - the train bearing the body of deceased FDR. It passed with darkened windows; few gave thought to what might be happeningâŚ
Packed with unknown stories and untold details, this book recounts the last chapter of each presidentâs extraordinary story. Youâll learn everything you could possibly want to know about how our presidents, from George Washington to George H. W. Bush (who was the most recent president to die), met their ends, the circumstances of their deaths, the pomp of their funerals, and their public afterlives, including stories of attempted grave robbings, reinterments, vandalism, conspiracy theories surrounding their deaths, and much more.
The book also includes "Critical Death Information," which prefaces each chapter and a complete visitor's guide to each grave site and death-related historical landmark. Exhaustively researched, it is richly layered with colorful facts as well as entertaining and tragic stories about how the presidents have passed.
