From Publishers Weekly
"Chet Arthur? President of the United States? Good God!" is a refrain that punctuates this new biography of the 21st president, the latest in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s American Presidents series. Readers today may confess bewilderment rather than surprise-Chester who?-but this brief but masterful portrait of Arthur’s life and times deserves an attentive audience. Karabell (The Last Campaign; Parting the Desert), freely admits his mission impossible: to rescue his subject from the dustbin of history occupied by obscure late 19th-century presidents, more famous for their facial hair than their tenures in office. Despite limited archival materials (Arthur’s papers were destroyed after his death), Karabell tackles this task with considerable literary aplomb. Charting a career that catapulted Arthur to the presidency after James Garfield’s assassination, Karabell investigates whether Arthur was an active reformer or a mere "placeholder." To frame this challenge, he explores the post-Civil War era’s simmering politics, which hinged on the "spoils system," a long-entrenched formula whereby victorious politicians distributed federal and state jobs to supporters and cronies, later mining their appointees’ pockets for future campaign "contributions." When calls for reform peaked, Arthur spurned the system that spawned him and signed the landmark Pendleton Civil Service Act, which launched the professionalization of the federal bureaucracy, replacing patronage with merit-based examinations. But Arthur was not a true reformist; in the end, Karabell says, he simply "conducted himself with honor when politics was venal and petty." Karabell also salutes the wealthy gourmand as a White House style-maker in a league with Jacqueline Kennedy. Arthur spruced up the dour mansion, in part by hiring the then-unknown decorator Louis Comfort Tiffany. By exploring the Gilded Age’s parallels with our own divisive political scene, Karabell does an excellent job of cementing the volume’s relevance for contemporary readers.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Presidents come no more obscure than Arthur; in this American Presidents series volume, Karabell shows why. Arthur's papers were destroyed shortly after his death, which makes guesswork out of ascertaining his thoughts about his administration. More important to his least-known status is the fact that he didn't want or expect to be president. A consummate Republican Party hack, he obtained the then enormously important position of U.S. customs collector in New York via the then-legal political spoils system. Asked to be Garfield's 1880 running mate, he dutifully obliged. Inaugurated in March 1881, Garfield was shot in July and died in September: Arthur was president. He rose to the occasion, angering Republican bosses, but didn't sacrifice the short working day to which he was accustomed. His light management style was okay for an era in which presidential politics mattered far less, his reform of the still-new civil service was a crucial early step toward "big government" in the twentieth century, and most important, Karabell suggests, he was a gentleman among knaves. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The Gilded Age bon vivant who became America's unlikeliest chief executive-and who presided over a sweeping reform of the system that nurtured him

Chester Alan Arthur never dreamed that one day he would be president of the United States. A successful lawyer, Arthur had been forced out as the head of the Custom House of the Port of New York in 1877 in a power struggle between the two wings of the Republican Party. He became such a celebrity that he was nominated for vice president in 1880-despite his never having run for office before.
Elected alongside James A. Garfield, Arthur found his life transformed just four months into his term, when an assassin shot and killed Garfield, catapulting Arthur into the presidency. The assassin was a deranged man who thought he deserved a federal job through the increasingly corrupt "spoils system." To the surprise of many, Arthur, a longtime beneficiary of that system, saw that the time had come for reform. His opportunity came in the winter of 1882-83, when he pushed through the Pendleton Act, which created a professional civil service and set America on a course toward greater reforms in the decades to come.
Chester Arthur may be largely forgotten today, but Zachary Karabell eloquently shows how this unexpected president-of whom so little was expected-rose to the occasion when fate placed him in the White House.


About the Author
Zachary Karabell is the author of several works of American and world history, including The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election and Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. He has taught at Harvard and Dartmouth, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek. He lives in New York City.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Chester Alan Arthur never dreamed that one day he would be president of the United States. He had enjoyed a long and successful career as a lawyer and Republican Party operative in New York City, where he served as collector of customs for the Port of New York, the biggest plum on the tree of political patronage. But in 1878 a power struggle between two wings of the Republican Party resulted in Arthur's forced removal from his post. The controversy made him a political celebrity and led to his nomination for vice president -- despite his never having run for office before.

Elected with James A. Garfield in 1880, Arthur found his life transformed just months into his term, when an assassin shot and killed Garfield, catapulting Arthur into the presidency. The assassin was a deranged man who thought he deserved a federal job through the corrupt "spoils system." To the surprise of many, Arthur, a longtime beneficiary of that system, saw that the time had come for reform. His opportunity came in the winter of 1882-83, when he played a crucial role in the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which created a professional civil service and set America on a course toward greater reforms in the decades to come.

Chester Arthur may be one of our lesser-known chief executives, but Zachary Karabell, the author of several highly regarded works of American and world history, shows how this president of whom so little was expected rose to the occasion when fate placed him in the White House. Arthur grew in office, frustrated those who demanded special treatment, and left the presidency in better shape than he found it. In many ways, he was an exceptional president who deserves more from history than he has received.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews