*Includes pictures
*Includes excerpts of contemporary accounts
*Includes a bibliography for further reading
Until April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors of his time, and President Abraham Lincoln had even watched him perform. But his most significant performance at a theater did not take place on the stage. That night, Booth became one of history's most infamous assassins when he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
He was the only sitting member of the House of Representatives elected President to date, but he served only about half a year in the office. He was the second president in less than 20 years felled by an assassin's bullet. Yet James A. Garfield, a man little known outside his own party before his "dark-horse" nomination by the Republican Party in 1880, was significant in a number of ways. Garfield's short term marked the first entrance of a "reformist" strain into the presidency that sought to root out corruption and political favoritism in government. Much of what we know as the modern federal bureaucracy has its roots in Garfield's advocacy of a professional civil service to fill most positions in the government, rather than filling those positions through political patronage, the "spoils system" that went back to the administration of Andrew Jackson. He did not live to see his proposed reforms enshrined in law, but Garfield's contribution to the history of the United States should not be underestimated.
Although he is often overlooked in American history today, few presidents marked a turning point for the country quite like William McKinley. As the last president to have served in the Civil War, he represented the end of an era, while at the same time his pro-business policies set in motion the Progressive Era, a period almost universally associated with Theodore Roosevelt. Of course, the reason that period is aligned with Roosevelt is because McKinley had the unfortunate distinction of being one of only four presidents to be assassinated. In September 1901, the city of Buffalo was full of celebration. The Pan-American Exposition was ongoing, and it brought notable figures to northern New York, including President McKinley, who had been reelected less than a year earlier. But also in Buffalo was Leon Czolgosz, a young man who had turned to anarchy years earlier after losing his job, Embracing his philosophy wholeheartedly, Czolgosz believed it was his mission to take down a powerful leader he considered oppressive, and McKinley's attendance gave him the chance.
In many ways, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his young family were the perfect embodiment of the '60s. The decade began with a sense of idealism, personified by the attractive Kennedy, his beautiful and fashionable wife Jackie, and his young children. Months into his presidency, Kennedy exhorted the country to reach for the stars, calling upon the nation to send a man to the Moon and back by the end of the decade. In 1961, Kennedy made it seem like anything was possible, and Americans were eager to believe him. The Kennedy years were fondly and famously labeled "Camelot," by Jackie herself, suggesting an almost mythical quality about the young President and his family.
The Assassinated Presidents: The Lives and Deaths of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy chronicles each president's life, and the assassinations that rocked the country. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the four presidents like never before.