Thank you to the publisher and for NetGalley, which provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Mr. Book just finished The Four Guns: The Stolen History Of The Assassinated Presidents, by John Koerner.
I am definitely intrigued by Koerner’s argument that the Confederate Secret Service was involved in the Lincoln assassination, but I am not ready to take a position on that issue yet. I know they had plots against Lincoln, but whether Booth’s successful conspiracy also included them is something I definitely do want to do more reading on. I am glad that this book raised the issue, took a position and reminded me that I have to do more reading to determine which side I find more persuasive.
As an aside, I see that I gave Edwin Steer’s book, in which he argued for that proposition, a B+ 5 years ago, so I must have been impressed, but don’t recall reading it. I see that I already have Tidwell’s book that this one cites to, so I’ll have to add that to my reading book. Actually, the more I think about it, this is discussion is more of just an aside. I always consider it a positive thing when a book makes me want to want to learn more about a topic and this book checks that box.
I knew that the book was going to also include a discussion of the guns used. I came into reading this thinking that I wasn’t really the target audience for that aspect of the book. But, I did enjoy that aspect more than I expected, especially the part about Booth (who had two guns with him that night).
I especially liked this line, when talking about the National Archive’s web page describing the gun Oswald that Oswald supposedly used: “The most revealing aspect, though on the entire web page describing the gun is the word ‘Allegedly.’ In my opinion, the title should read ‘Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle Probably News Owned by Lee Harvey Oswald and Probably Never Used to Assassinate President J. Kennedy.’”
His discussion of whether there was a conspiracy against McKinley was interesting, but I’m not ready to take a position on that yet. I wish the author’s book on that topic was available in Kindle edition, but it isn’t.
His discussion of JFK was also very good, while his discussion on Garfield was good too. I hadn’t realized how many enemies Garfield had already been making during his first year in office.
For each assassination, the author speculates on what would have happened if the president had lived. Those discussions were very interesting.
Reading this book has prompted me to go get the Kindle version of his book on the JFK and Malcolm X assassinations.
In terms of a grade, Mr. Book give this one an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).,
Mr. Book originally read this on May 16, 2024.
