When the trailer first appeared for Death by Lightning , Netflix’s excellent new miniseries about the election and assassination of President James A. Garfield, I and my Intelligencer colleagues were thrilled. (“I can’t believe Netflix made a show just for us!” one co-worker exclaimed.) As an American history nerd, I watched the four-hour saga with great interest and, inevitably, with an eye out for accuracy. The entertaining and well-acted series definitely gets a lot right, but the story and characterizations also diverge from history in some significant ways. Below are some observations (which obviously contain spoilers for the series if you haven’t seen it).

My reference points, by the way, are three notable books on the period in question: Dark Horse: The Surprise Election a

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