The Unexpected President

When President James Garfield was shot, no one in the United States was more dismayed than his Vice President, Chester Arthur. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and his fellow citizens but by his own conscience.

From his promising start, Arthur had become a political hack, a shill for Roscoe Conkling, and Arthur knew better even 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 courageous, going up against the very forces that had controlled him for decades.

Arthur surprised everyone--and gained many enemies--when he swept house and courageously took on corruption, civil rights for black people, and issues of land for Native Americans. His short presidency proved to be a turning point of American history, in many ways a preview of our own times, and is a sterling example of how someone can "rise to the occasion."

This beautifully written biography tells the dramatic, untold story of a virtually forgotten American president, 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, right when his nation needed him.

“"[ The Unexpected President ] reminds readers of the importance of the choice for this office."-- Choice”

"[The Unexpected President] reminds readers of the importance of the choice for this office."--Choice
"[Greenberger's] vibrant narrative and fetching personal profiles transform a biography about a largely overlooked political figure into a suspensefully, well, unexpectedly gratifying read."--Sam Roberts, New York Times
"A great historical read and a great glimpse of a colorful, pivotal, oft-overlooked, slice of U.S. history."--Austin American-Statesman
"A solidly researched and fast-paced monograph that reminds us that there was more to Arthur than the sideburns."--The Weekly Standard
"An entertaining, illuminating biography of the 21st president and the political world in which he lived."--Wall Street Journal
"An excellent page-turning biography."--The Bowery Boys
"By sheer authorly enthusiasm, [Greenberger] manages to rescue Arthur from his own reputation as an obscure placeholder and put him before readers as a man who came abruptly into his own best convictions."--Christian Science Monitor
"Chester A. Arthur, who knew? Scott Greenberger redeems our most forgotten president from the margins of history with verve and narrative skill. Arthur lived a life full of twists. His biography is a story of a moral tumble and a brave quest for redemption. Greenberger propels us towards his subject, finding the pathos in his fascinating life, and quietly demands that we give him his proper due."--Franklin Foer, former editor of The New Republic and author of World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Techand How Soccer Explains the World
"Greenberger convincingly presents a machine politician transformed by the responsibility of high office."--Boston Globe
"Greenberger employs his reportorial talent to tell a story with a strong narrative arc and makes Chester Arthur come alive on the page."--The Bennington Banner
"Greenberger has done a fine job with what will likely be the definitive book on the 21st president."
--Houston Press
"Richly researched, sourced and annotated, this book principally reveals a neglected president's varied career."--Washington Times
"Scott Greenberger's sparkling narrative brings to life Chester Arthur's remarkable journey from lighthearted and cynical scion of New York's potent Republican machine to probity-minded president focused on the national interest. It's a poignant tale, as well as an important historical one, and it is captured here in vivid prose that dances upon a foundation of probing research."--Robert W. Merry, author of A Country of Vast Designs
"Scott S. Greenberger has crafted a riveting tale of nineteenth-century history from what others have skipped over as a mere historical curiosity. Crisply written and richly evocative, The Unexpected President is an inspiring account of how a political hack was transformed in meeting the expectation of the presidency and rendered a virtuous service to the nation. This is a remarkable work of historical discovery about a forgotten politician whose rise above the politics of his time could be a model for our age."--James McGrath Morris, author of Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power
"Shipwrecks. A crazed assassin. The frantic machinations of a deadlocked political convention. In this penetrating tale of madness, blundering, intrigue, and corruption at the height of the Gilded Age--that era that helped mold our own--Scott Greenberger gives us a keen and vivid portrait of President Chester Arthur, the most accidental of American chief executives, and the remarkable turns of fate that brought him to the White House."--John A. Farrell, author of Richard Nixon: The Life
"Thoroughly accessible to lay readers and scholars alike...highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review

Scott Greenberger is the co-author, with former Senator Tom Daschle, of Critical: What We Can Do about the Health Care Crisis, a New York Times bestseller published in 2008. Greenberger is currently the editor of Stateline, a news website (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts) that covers state politics and policy for dozens of US newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. He was a newspaper reporter for twelve years, first at the Austin American-Statesman and then at the Boston Globe, and has also written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, GQ, Glamour, Washington Monthly, Moment magazine, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Washington, DC.

When President James Garfield was shot, no one in the United States was more dismayed than his Vice President, Chester Arthur. For years Arthur had been perceived as unfit to govern, not only by critics and his fellow citizens but by his own conscience.From his promising start, Arthur had become a political hack, a shill for Roscoe Conkling, and Arthur knew better even 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 courageous, going up against the very forces that had controlled him for decades.Arthur surprised everyone--and gained many enemies--when he swept house and courageously took on corruption, civil rights for black people, and issues of land for Native Americans. His short presidency proved to be a turning point of American history, in many ways a preview of our own times, and is a sterling example of how someone can "rise to the occasion."This beautifully written biography tells the dramatic, untold story of a virtually forgotten American president, 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, right when his nation needed him.

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