Grant
The #1 New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017 "Eminently readable but thick with import . . . Grant hits like a Mack truck of knowledge." --Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency. Before the Civil War, Grant was flailing. His business ventures had ended dismally, and despite distinguished service in the Mexican War he ended up resigning from the army in disgrace amid recurring accusations of drunkenness. But in war, Grant began to realize his remarkable potential, soaring through the ranks of the Union army, prevailing at the battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign, and ultimately defeating the legendary Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Along the way, Grant endeared himself to President Lincoln and became his most trusted general and the strategic genius of the war effort. Grant's military fame translated into a two-term presidency, but one plagued by corruption scandals involving his closest staff members. More important, he sought freedom and justice for black Americans, working to crush the Ku Klux Klan and earning the admiration of Frederick Douglass, who called him "the vigilant, firm, impartial, and wise protector of my race." After his presidency, he was again brought low by a dashing young swindler on Wall Street, only to resuscitate his image by working with Mark Twain to publish his memoirs, which are recognized as a masterpiece of the genre. With lucidity, breadth, and meticulousness, Chernow finds the threads that bind these disparate stories together, shedding new light on the man whom Walt Whitman described as "nothing heroic... and yet the greatest hero." Chernow's probing portrait of Grant's lifelong struggle with alcoholism transforms our understanding of the man at the deepest level. This is America's greatest biographer, bringing movingly to life one of our finest but most underappreciated presidents. The definitive biography, Grant is a grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that makes sense of all sides of Grant's life, explaining how this simple Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary. Named one of the best books of the year by Goodreads - Amazon - The New York Times - Newsday - BookPage - Barnes and Noble - Wall Street Journal
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
What a complex and thoroughly underrated president, military leader, and US citizen. Every period of his live swung radically between someone you respected massively to someone you could not fathom being so naive/idiotic. As a general and as a president he championed freeing slaves and establishing and fully protecting their citizenship. As a private citizen he unwittingly scammed his entire family out of their savings, got embarrassingly drunk in front of rivals, and his addiction to cigars cost him his life.
Something to reflect on: that most of the well-known Civil War generals served the south/rebels. This book gave many good reasons that is more a product of the basically racist "Lost Cause" effort than a reasonable or accurate assessment. In particular the book makes a strong argument that Grant was a much more comprehensively successful and brilliant leader than Lee. Grant was in command of the entire US armies and his strategy spanned the entire US whereas Lee only ever focused on and cared about Virginia. Not to mention that the style of war Lee fought was basically unwinable. Grant's awesome efforts seem mostly to have been lost in popular history/popular culture today.
The book references Grant's autobiography frequently (published by none other than Mark Twain). So I'm curious to read it, especially the annotated version by Elizabeth Samet.
Something to reflect on: that most of the well-known Civil War generals served the south/rebels. This book gave many good reasons that is more a product of the basically racist "Lost Cause" effort than a reasonable or accurate assessment. In particular the book makes a strong argument that Grant was a much more comprehensively successful and brilliant leader than Lee. Grant was in command of the entire US armies and his strategy spanned the entire US whereas Lee only ever focused on and cared about Virginia. Not to mention that the style of war Lee fought was basically unwinable. Grant's awesome efforts seem mostly to have been lost in popular history/popular culture today.
The book references Grant's autobiography frequently (published by none other than Mark Twain). So I'm curious to read it, especially the annotated version by Elizabeth Samet.
I am so excited I finished this book! I felt like I experienced every minute of Grant’s 63 years.
I read this because Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested it in an article in The Atlantic and I spent the first half of the book wondering why. The first half of this large tome is Grant’s early life and what felt like the entire Civil War. Have you figured out that I am not a Civil War enthusiast?
I found the second half of the book about Reconstruction and the Grant presidency infinitely more readable. I breezed through that informative section only to be slowed down a bit by Chernow’s protracted coverage of Grant’s post-presidency, death, and burial. Mark Twain improved the end quite a bit.
I think Chernow let Grant off too easily on his bungling of Black Rock, but otherwise a very detailed and probably balanced look at Grant.
I read this because Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested it in an article in The Atlantic and I spent the first half of the book wondering why. The first half of this large tome is Grant’s early life and what felt like the entire Civil War. Have you figured out that I am not a Civil War enthusiast?
I found the second half of the book about Reconstruction and the Grant presidency infinitely more readable. I breezed through that informative section only to be slowed down a bit by Chernow’s protracted coverage of Grant’s post-presidency, death, and burial. Mark Twain improved the end quite a bit.
I think Chernow let Grant off too easily on his bungling of Black Rock, but otherwise a very detailed and probably balanced look at Grant.
It’s shocking how the losers of the Civil War are more celebrated and memorialized in school names and statues than the General they lost to. A man under whose leadership a war was won, important constitutional amendments were enforced, and a persistent military presence in the South put the boot on the neck of white supremacy. For better or worse his story is hotly debated. Like with all things, context matters and no more so in this account.
Coming from a family of devout abolitionist, perhaps no other President delivered so much in action, money, and support for Black America than Grant. Facts suspiciously overlooked on our textbooks. Instead his characterization is summarized as either the victorious General, a drunk, or misguided President. Even his name is not represented in its exact form. In truth, like all of us, he was more complex, intellectually and morally than history has remembered him.
It is no surprise than that it would take this behemoth of a biography to capture all of the nuance of such a layered man. No stone unturned or detail left out, no matter what light it may cast Grant in. The added color of the outstanding feats and failings contrasted to his natural introvert demeanor, make for a fun and engaging journey through his life. The scope of which is encyclopedic in the periods covered and international reach it had. I recommend this one in audiobook format. The reading makes nearly 50-hour listening feel more like a live action documentary.
Even in detailing his shortcomings, the biographer demonstrates that in Grant’s life story we are reminded that even the best of us are flawed. What we observe is a man who goes through a sort of hero’s journey to arrive at his true place. Along the way we get a meticulously detailed history of the civil war, politics, and culture of the Gilded Age. Parts of which mirror the drama and complexities of the Peloponnesian War as told by Thucydides.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.