At the beginning of the Netflix limited series “Death by Lightning,” about the rise and fall of President James Garfield in 1880–81, his soon-to-be assassin tries to excuse his checkered past before the parole board of the infamous New York prison known as “The Tombs.”
“Are we not a nation built wholly from rogues and migrants and freethinkers?” Charles Guiteau proclaims, with a phrase that might be used to sum up America’s entire history as its 250th birthday approaches on July 4.
Even though Guiteau was considered to have mental illness, his character and that of the 20th president provide insights relevant to almost any period in U.S. history, but especially today as another major test of democracy’s strength plays out, according to the author of the book that inspired the four-part series.
