The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur
The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur
Greenberger, Scott S.
product information
Condition: New, UPC: 9780306922701, Publication Date: Sat, June 1, 2019, Type: Paperback ,
join & start selling
description
shot in 1881, nobody expected Vice President Chester A. Arthur to become a strong and effective president, a courageous anti-corruption reformer, and an early civil rights advocate.

Despite his promising start as a young man, by his early fifties Chester A. Arthur was known as the crooked crony of New York machine boss Roscoe Conkling. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and the vast majority of his fellow citizens but by his own conscience. As President James A. Garfield struggled for his life, Arthur knew better than his detractors that he failed to meet the high standard a president must uphold.

And yet, from the moment President Arthur took office, he proved to be not just honest but brave, going up against the very forces that had controlled him for decades. He surprised everyone -- and gained many enemies -- when he swept house and took on corruption, civil rights for blacks, and issues of land for Native Americans.

A mysterious young woman deserves much of the credit for Arthur's remarkable transformation. Julia Sand, a bedridden New Yorker, wrote Arthur nearly two dozen letters urging him to put country over party, to find "the spark of true nobility" that lay within him. At a time when women were barred from political life, Sand's letters inspired Arthur to transcend his checkered past--and changed the course of American history.

This beautifully written biography tells the dramatic, untold story of a virtually forgotten American president. It is the tale of a machine politician and man-about-town in Gilded Age New York who stumbled into the highest office in the land, only to rediscover his better self when his nation needed him.

reviews

Be the first to write a review

member goods

No member items were found under this heading.

notems store

The Power of Place: Authentic ...

by Vander Ark, Tom

Paperback /Paperback

$20.96

The Life of Saint Benedict

by McKenzie, John

Hardcover /Hardcover

$12.74

The Power of Poison

by Magnani, Bj

Paperback /Paperback

$12.74

123: Early Learning at the ...

by Nosy Crow

Hardcover /Board Books

$5.99

listens & views

PIANO MUSIC

by SCHUBERT / BARNATAN

COMPACT DISC

$17.75

SORAEHWA

by TAE HWAN,KANG

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$33.99

Return Policy

All sales are final

Shipping

No special shipping considerations available.
Shipping fees determined at checkout.