Murdering McKinley

“A compact masterpiece . . . Illuminating the society that inspired a coldblooded murder, [it] is a brilliant trip through the heart of the 19th Century.” —Heather Cox Richardson, Chicago Tribune

When President William McKinley was murdered at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, Americans were bereaved and frightened. Rumor ran rampant: A wild-eyed foreign anarchist with an unpronounceable name had killed the commander-in-chief. Eric Rauchway’s brilliant Murdering McKinley restages Leon Czolgosz’s hastily conducted trial and then traverses America with Dr. Vernon Briggs, a Boston alienist who sets out to discover why Czolgosz rose up to kill his president.

“Before Lee Harvey Oswald there was Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who shot and killed President William McKinley in 1901. Murdering McKinley tells the story of this assassin and the push he gave to progressivism by making Teddy Roosevelt president of the United States.” —Bruce Ramsey, The Seattle Times

“Eric Rauchway is that rare historian who is also a first-rate storyteller. Murdering McKinley is almost as impressive a literary feat as it is a scholarly one; a fascinating window on a turbulent time in our untold history and a damn good read to boot.” —Eric Alterman, author of We Are Not One

“This ambitious book paints a fresh picture of American culture a century ago and finds there the confused stirrings of our own age.” —Publishers Weekly

“The author argues as well that Roosevelt’s progressive beliefs arose in part out of his desire for a society that would not create men like Leon Czolgosz . . . convey[s] ideas of great consequence.” —Kirkus Reviews