Book Review: The President and The Assassin by Scott Miller, 2011, Random House.

The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller presents a compressed but lush course in history lending context to the cold blooded murder of William McKinley at the hands of self proclaimed anarchist Leo Czologosz. Published in 2011 by Random House the similarities between today and the turning of the nineteenth century into the twentieth are startling. As the United States begins to flex its muscle and influence as a global military and financial power; as war, labor unrest, colonialism, invasion, protests against the rich, and violence in the streets serve as background against a growing progressive movement in the Democrat party, a solidifying conservative movement in the Republican party and a schizophrenic anarchist movement trying to find its voice --- as with all assassinations, it comes down to one disgruntled human being at the center. What makes this case differ from the Garfield and Kennedy assassinations, and is yet similar to Abraham Lincoln’s murder, is the President’s actual cause of death. William McKinley did not die on the floor of the Temple of Music at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. He died following surgery and while it is arguable that his physicians may have committed malpractice, a shocked and patriotic society looking for order during disorderly times holds the man who put this causation into motion responsible. Leo Czologosz hangs, order is restored and the United States under Theodore Roosevelt flourishes. This is a most fascinating and well written book that should be the cornerstone for any historian’s and history lover’s bookshelf.