At the Republican National Convention of 1880, delegates were bitterly divided. It took 36 ballots to settle on a nominee. Among the attendees was an Ohio congressman and former farmer who had come merely to support another candidate. But when he took the stage, his speech electrified the hall so powerfully that delegates nominated him instead. Within months, the reluctant politician was sworn in as the 20th President of the United States, with Chester Arthur as his vice president.

This was James Garfield, the president whose rise and death form the heart of Death by Lightning , Netflix’s latest historical drama. What begins as a tale of political triumph soon spirals into obsession, madness, and a crime that stunned a nation.

Garfield’s life embodied the American dream. Born into pove

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