Ulysses S. Grant
Soldier & President
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Not since Bruce Catton has there been such an absorbing and exciting biography of Ulysses S. Grant. “Grant is a mystery to me,” said William Tecumseh Sherman, “and I believe he is a mystery to himself.” Geoffrey Perret’s account offers new insights into Grant the commander and Grant the president that would have astonished both his friends, such as Sherman, and his enemies.
Based on extensive research, including material either not seen or not used by other writers, this biography explains for the first time how Ulysses S. Grant’s military genius ultimately triumphed as he created a new approach to battle. He was, says Perret, “the man who taught the army how to fight.”
As president, Grant was widely misunderstood and underrated. That was mainly because he was, as Perret shows, the first modern president—the first man to preside over a rich, industrialized America that had put slavery behind it and was struggling to provide racial justice for all.
Grant’s story—from a frontier boyhood to West Point; from heroic feats in the Mexican War to grinding poverty in St. Louis; from his return to the army and eventual election to the presidency; from his two-year journey around the world to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs—is one of the most adventurous and moving in American history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perret (Old Soldiers Never Die) regards Grant as the greatest soldier the U.S. has ever seen, and believes that his greatness has been obscured because of the lack of drama in his life. Unlike William Sherman, Grant did not suffer a nervous breakdown midway through the Civil War; unlike Robert E. Lee, he had no crisis of conscience over where his loyalties belonged. He was happily and conventionally married. Even his vices were undramatic: he was a sloppy drunk rather than a brooding alcoholic. Yet Perret's Grant is anything but ordinary. He emerges here as a rustic romantic who never settled down, but instead found his vital center in his personal relationships and in his own sense of identity. Grant was an unobtrusive master of the theory, history and craft of war, but he was unconcerned with showing off his knowledge for his own advantage. Grant knew who he was, and for him that was enough, although this inner directedness made it difficult for even close friends and associates to understand him. At times, Perret overstates his case, arguing that Grant was surrounded by dimwits and lackeys instead of the solid personal and professional supporters that in fact enabled his military talents. Perret's relentless stressing of Grant's wisdom results in an overly sympathetic biography. On balance, however, this volume stands among the finest comprehensive treatments of the man who did more than anyone except Lincoln to restore the Union. Photos not seen by PW.
