Review by Choice Review
AN "UNCOMMON COMMON MAN": ULYSSES S. GRANT While Ron Chernow was researching and writing Grant, the inescapable question was "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" A seemingly simple query with a straightforward answer, though it trivializes a major historical figure. But surprisingly few aspects of Ulysses S. Grant's life were simple. This comprehensive biography is long, very long indeed. At nearly 1,100 pages, it is so gargantuan that Grant could have used it to crush the Confederacy. Chernow skillfully recounts Grant's life, but he also seeks to refute longstanding myths and calumnies about the general and president, replacing them with more accurate, not to mention fair, understandings. Given enduring controversies about the Civil War and Reconstruction, Grant will, perhaps inevitably, have its critics. Still, they should not disdain learning from this impressive and stylishly written study. Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Washington: A Life (CH, Jul'11, 48-6475) and Alexander Hamilton (CH, Jan'05, 42-2983), inspiration of the current Broadway show, follows the standard chronological structure of narrating an individual life, but he chooses interesting priorities. There is rather less emphasis on Grant's early years than in some other biographies, with just one chapter on his youth.1 The Mexican-American War, which Grant loathed as unjust aggression, gets a single chapter, though Chernow acknowledges that it provided Grant with crucial military experience and strengthened his character. These sections are somewhat weakened by their frequent reliance on witnesses influenced by hindsight. This seems rather pat when these witnesses assert years later that they recognized Grant's greatness from casual acquaintance. The book hits full stride with the advent of Southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War. From spring 1861, steady if not constant success marked Grant's meteoric rise from failure and obscurity through an impressive string of victories to commanding all Union troops in March 1864. A little over a year later, his triumph over Robert E. Lee effectively ended the war. No general surpassed Grant at forcing surrenders, winning in this way at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Appomattox. Chernow clearly admires Grant's generalship, highlighting his ability to learn from mistakes and exploit changing circumstances. Grant's strategic vision encompassed the conflict in its entirety, orchestrating several offensives in the concerted 1864-65 campaign that doomed the Confederacy. Chernow aligns with historians' view that, essentially, Lee was the last great general of the eighteenth century, and Grant was the first great general of the twentieth century. This contrasts Lee's tactical brilliance but limited concept of overall strategy with Grant's shrewd, relentless use of industrial and numerical supremacy in pioneering modern total war.2 Grant also supports a better understanding of his presidency. Long dismissed as among the worst presidents, his achievements were substantial. Though Grant himself was honest and competent, corruption and favoritism plagued many administration officials. Grant was the only president to deploy federal troops during Reconstruction, which was not just about rebuilding the Southern economy, but reconstructing American democracy.3 The president used the judiciary on behalf of freedmen too, successfully prosecuting thousands of cases against the Ku Klux Klan and destroying its effectiveness as a terrorist organization. Documenting this accomplishment may be the book's most innovative aspect. Grant pursued a Peace Policy in relations with Native Americans. This was less successful due to constant pressure on Indians from westward migration, and Grant's assumption of the benefits of assimilation was misplaced. But his administration's efforts were generally more humane in their intent than preceding policies. Grant also appointed a Seneca Indian, Ely Parker, as commissioner of Indian affairs, then the highest federal office attained by any Native American. Furthermore, skillful conflict resolution characterized his foreign policy. Other historians have focused on Grant's administrations, but it was often done to condemn him. Thanks to Chernow (and recent predecessors), Grant should rank in the middle range of presidents, and arguably higher. The subject explored at greatest length throughout is also the key controversy surrounding Grant: his drinking. Chernow carefully analyzes the evidence for numerous (in)famous episodes (commonly exaggerated by critics) and concludes that Grant was an alcoholic whose periodic binges never interfered with wartime duty or became public spectacles. Rather than viewing his drinking as a damning failure, Chernow argues that Grant's successful struggle with alcoholism actually exemplified his personal triumph in surmounting a disease that derailed his early military career, motivating countless addicts to overcome their own limitations. The victory over alcoholism is but one way Chernow sheds light on Grant's personal life; identifying two others here will suffice. After leaving office, Ulysses and Julia Grant spent two years traveling the world, and one historian has already used sources from this tour to indicate that their itinerary traversed many regions devastated by the global El Nino drought and famines of 1876-79.4 Chernow recounts another aspect of the Grants' lives; namely, their great romance from beginning to end. Most people today assume that couples always tended to "marry for love," but less than 200 years ago, this was untypical. Young people seldom exercised choice, instead serving as instruments in forming alliances between families. Modern Americans take romantic love and companionate marriage for granted (sic), but the Grants were prominent early, if not pioneering, models of this fundamental shift. Indeed, they were known for public displays of affectionate kisses and chaste caresses that seem tame by today's standards, but it was heady stuff for Victorian observers.5 Grant's last battle was fought against mortality. Racing against cancer and time, he completed his Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1885-86) one week before his death. This act of devotion gave his family financial security while giving posterity a priceless document--a literary masterpiece and probably the best book ever written by a US president, and now available in a superb annotated edition (2017).6 Finally, we return to the hoary question: "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" The correct answer is: no one. Both Ulysses and Julia Grant are entombed there above ground, but nobody is actually buried underground. Since Grant rose to prominence in early 1862, there have been many questions about his abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and character. Grant addresses them in a manner that compels historians to reckon with this landmark work. Chernow firmly establishes Ulysses S. Grant as the general of freedom who vanquished the armies of slavery, then defended freedom. If that is not greatness or heroic, then nothing is. NOTES Inspiration for the review title comes from A. L. Conger, The Rise of U.S. Grant (Da Capo, c.1931,1996), xvi; and George S. Kanahele ed., Hawaiian Music and Musicians: An Illustrated History (Hawai'i, 1979), 287. CH, May '80. 1. Cf. William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography; (Norton, 1981) CH, Sep'81; J.E. Smith, Grant (Simon & Schuster, 2001) CH, Dec'01, 39-2399; and R. White, American Ulysses (Random House, 2016). For years, McFeely's highly critical study dominated scholarship on Grant because of its thorough research. But it has been superseded by more favorable assessments from Smith, then White, and now Chernow's work. 2. Primarily associated with J.F.C. Fuller, Grant & Lee (Scribner's, 1933), 248-49; and Decisive Battles of the U.S.A. (Beechhurst Press, c. 1942, 1953), 319. 3. W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (Harcourt Brace, 1935); Katharine L. Balfour, Democracy's Reconstruction (Oxford, 2011) CH, Dec'11, 49-2347. 4. Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts (Verso, 2001), 1-6. CH, Jul'01, 38-6200, making effective use of John R. Young, Around the World with General Grant (The American News Co., 1879). Davis claims that the Grants seemed barely aware of the catastrophes unfolding around them. 5. Stephen M. Frank, Life with Father: Parenthood and Masculinity in the Nineteenth-Century American North (Johns Hopkins, 1998), 179. CH, Jul'99, 36-6457; Edward Shorter, The Making of the Modern Family (Basic Books, 1975) CH, Mar'76. 6. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. John F. Marszalek (Harvard, 2017). Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Thomas Pyke Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
GRANT, by Ron Chernow. (Penguin Press, $40.) Chernow gives us a Grant for our time, comprehensively recounting not only the victorious Civil War general but also a president who fought against white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan and championed the right of eligible citizens to exercise the vote. GOOD ME BAD ME, by Ali Land. (Flatiron, $25.99.) This debut novel's teenage narrator is speaking to the mother she loves and misses. It's a one-sided conversation because her mother is about to go on trial for murder, and her daughter is the one who turned her in. THE RIVIERA SET: Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society, by Mary S. Lovell. (Pegasus, $27.95.) Full of gossip about what Somerset Maugham called a "sunny place for shady people," Lovell's narrative describes the entertainments staged by the various owners of a chateau in the south of France. THE ORDINARY VIRTUES: Moral Order in a Divided World, by Michael Ignatieff. (Harvard, $27.95.) This admirable little book, in which the author grapples with whether globalization is drawing us together or tearing us apart, represents a triumph of execution over conception. FRESH COMPLAINT: Stories, by Jeffrey Eugenides. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) In his debut collection, written over three decades, Eugenides explores variations on the theme of failure - marital, creative and financial - while at times reprising characters from his novels "Middlesex" and "The Marriage Plot." WHY WE SLEEP: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker. (Scribner, $27.) The director of Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab makes the argument for why sleep is essential to our well-being: "to reset our brain and body health each day." GREATER GOTHAM: A History of New York City From 1898 to 1919, by Mike Wallace. (Oxford, $45.) A vibrant, detailed chronicle, almost 1,200 pages long, of the 20 years that made New York City the place we know today, with new bridges, the advent of Broadway and the opening of the first subway lines. COMPLETE STORIES, by Kurt Vonnegut. Edited by Jerome Klimkowitz and Dan Wakefield. (Seven Stories, $45.) Vonnegut used his early short fiction to test the themes that animated his later novels. For completists, these 98 stories (including five published for the first time) will be like a boxed set of a musician's first recordings. AKATA WARRIOR, by Nnedi Okorafor. (Viking, $18.99.) The longawaited sequel to Okorafor's "Akata Witch" is about a 13-year-old Nigerian girl whose mystical powers could save the world. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 6, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* For most of the past century, the consensus among historians was that Grant was an effective but unimaginative general and a mediocre president whose administrations were soiled by financial corruption. In recent decades, there have been several more positive reappraisals of Grant as a soldier and politician. Chernow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, most notably, of Alexander Hamilton, presents a massive and beautifully written portrait that may well be a culmination of that revisionist trend. Chernow views Grant as a modest man who, unlike any of his West Point contemporaries, sought neither fame nor glory. Instead, he regarded the winning of the Civil War as a test of duty, and he pursued that with dogged determination. Perhaps he lacked the flair of some other commanders, but he was a master in coordination of troop movements and supply of ordinance and other essential materials. Like his friend William Sherman, Grant knew the war had to be waged against the farms and factories that supplied Confederate soldiers. Chernow doesn't gloss over Grant's struggle with alcoholism or his tendency to trust shady operators. However, his willingness to protect the gains of freemen and to fight the KKK was an example of the moral courage he consistently displayed. This is a superb tribute to Grant, whose greatness is earning increased appreciation.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Acclaimed biographer Chernow, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Washington: A Life, entertains in this informative whopper as he upends the long-held view of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) as a lumbering general and incompetent president. An unhappy Army officer who resigned his commission in 1854, Grant was reduced to clerking in his father's dry-goods store when President Lincoln called for volunteers in 1861. Bolstered by his West Point background and enthusiastic support from his congressman, Grant reentered service and quickly rose to brigadier general. In February 1862, he won the first great Union victory by capturing forts Henry and Donelson. Thrilled by Grant's victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Lincoln made him commanding general of the Union Army. Chernow contrasts Grant's awareness of the tasks required to win the war with opponent Robert E. Lee's comparative shortsightedness. Discussing Grant's presidency (1869-1877), Chernow discloses the admiration he received from contemporary black leaders for his efforts during Reconstruction, even though it collapsed due to continued white intransigence. Similarly, pressure from whites undermined Grant's well-intentioned Indian policy, leading to the Sioux Wars. Throughout his life, Grant was bad with money and a constant target of hucksters. Chernow spares few details, but Grant was a complex, mostly admirable figure, and this may become the definitive biography for the foreseeable future. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Chernow continues his success from his best seller Alexander Hamilton, with this comprehensive account of Civil War general and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant (1822-85). Some view Grant as a brilliant military tactician and influential if flawed politician; others paint him as corrupt and ineffectual. Chernow, utilizing thousands of letters, military records, and diary entries, creates a more complete portrait of the surprisingly timid Grant, who hated the sight of blood and understood that the thousands of men dying every day under his command were the only way to end what was, in his mind, a thankless and brutal war. Chernow's Grant is humble, quiet, and playful-moody in peacetime but a genius in wartime. As other historians have painted Grant as a raging drunkard, Chernow sheds light on Grant's lifetime battle with alcohol as a disease, rather than a vice. Admittedly, Grant's history as president is much less interesting than his military duty, and much of this volume is devoted to the Civil War. Grant was an inexperienced politician, and history has allowed the corruption that flourished during his time as president to overshadow the landmark civil rights legislation passed during his tenure. VERDICT Don't expect a Grant musical, but this important work of American biography belongs on every library shelf. [See Prepub Alert, 4/17/17.]-Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn P.L. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A massive biography of the Civil War general and president, who "was the single most important figure behind Reconstruction."Most Americans know the traditional story of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885): a modest but brutal general who pummeled Robert E. Lee into submission and then became a bad president. Historians changed their minds a generation ago, and acclaimed historian Chernow (Washington: A Life, 2010, etc.), winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, goes along in this doorstop of a biography, which is admiring, intensely detailed, and rarely dull. A middling West Point graduate, Grant performed well during the Mexican War but resigned his commission, enduring seven years of failure before getting lucky. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was the only West Point graduate in the area, so local leaders gave him a command. Unlike other Union commanders, he was aggressive and unfazed by setbacks. His brilliant campaign at Vicksburg made him a national hero. Taking command of the Army of the Potomac, he forced Lee's surrender, although it took a year. Easily elected in 1868, he was the only president who truly wanted Reconstruction to work. Despite achievements such as suppressing the Ku Klux Klan, he was fighting a losing battle. Historian Richard N. Current wrote, "by backing Radical Reconstruction as best he could, he made a greater effort to secure the constitutional rights of blacks than did any other President between Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson." Recounting the dreary scandals that soiled his administration, Chernow emphasizes that Grant was disastrously lacking in cynicism. Loyal to friends and susceptible to shady characters, he was an easy mark, and he was fleeced regularly throughout his life. In this sympathetic biography, the author continues the revival of Grant's reputation. At nearly 1,000 pages, Chernow delivers a deeply researched, everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know biography, but few readers will regret the experience. For those seeking a shorter treatment, turn to Josiah Bunting's Ulysses S. Grant (2004). Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
