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Overview
New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017
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
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780143110637 |
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Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 09/25/2018 |
Pages: | 1104 |
Sales rank: | 4,394 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.50(d) |
About the Author

Hometown:
Brooklyn, NYDate of Birth:
March 3, 1949Place of Birth:
Brooklyn, NYEducation:
Yale University; Cambridge UniversityTable of Contents
Author's Note 13
Introduction: The Sphinx Talks 15
Maps 24
Part 1 A Life of Struggle
1 Country Bumpkin 37
2 The Darling Young Lieutenant 58
3 Rough and Ready 82
4 The Son of Temperance 110
5 Payday 139
Part 2 A Life of War
6 The Store Clerk 179
7 The Quiet Man 205
8 Twin Forts 231
9 Dynamo 261
10 A Glittering Lie 286
11 Exodus 320
12 Man of Iron 348
13 Citadel 382
14 Deliverance 410
15 Above the Clouds 440
16 Idol of the Hour 470
17 Ulysses the Silent 496
18 Raging Storm 521
19 Heavens Hung in Black 550
20 Caldron of Hell 578
21 Chew & Choke 605
22 Her Satanic Majesty 635
23 Dirty Boots 671
24 A Singular, Indescribable Vessel 713
Part 3 A Life of Peace
25 Soldierly Good Faith 747
26 Swing Around the Circle 775
27 Volcanic Passion 809
28 Trading Places 835
29 Spoils of War 862
30 We Are All Americans 888
31 Sin Against Humanity 911
32 The Darkest Blot 934
33 A Dance of Blood 963
34 Vindication 984
35 A Butchery of Citizens 1021
36 The Bravest Battle 1045
37 Let No Guilty Man Escape 1071
38 Saddest of the Falls 1100
39 Redeemers 1125
Part 4 A Life of Reflection
40 The Wanderer 1155
41 Master Spirit 1193
42 A Miserable Dirty Reptile 1216
43 Taps 1241
Acknowledgments 1283
Notes 1291
Bibliography 1451
Illustration Credits 1475