A President Felled by an Assassin and 1880s Medical Care

Ignaz Semmelweis [1] was one of the first to advocate for more sterile conditions in hospitals. His contemporaries mocked him for his insistence that they wash their hands between autopsies and examining women who'd just given birth.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Medicine has come a long way, but there are still some areas that need improvement. Society's approach to addiction (alcohol, etc) needs a complete scrap & rewrite.

Candace Millard's book "the destiny of the republic" covers this and is pretty good. Garfield seemed like the type of person who could have done great things in office, given his apparent intelligence and humble upbringing. I also think the journey of his assassin -- a mentally troubled individual with no real reason to target Garfield -- is still relevant given the long US history struggling with this subject.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4X33O?_encoding=UTF8