Comment

Jun 02, 2018ncoccoma rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Ron Chernow's Grant is essential reading for our time, rehabilitating the reputation of the greatest general in American history and one of our greatest--and most maligned--presidents. Grant emerges from this book not only as the military genius that he was, surpassing Robert E. Lee, but also as the courageous and humane president who defended the civil rights of black Americans, crushed the Ku Klux Klan, and forged a crucial treaty with Britain that began our "special relationship." At the end of his life, on death's door, he penned the greatest memoir of any American president. Chernow is the not greatest stylist. His prose is often dry and laden with adjectives, without the inventiveness and artistry of a great narrative writer like Rick Atkinson. But what he lacks in rhetoric he makes up for in detail. The amount of research that went into this book is astonishing. I have read several biographies of Grant, but Chernow's was far and away the most informative. He has dug up fascinating nuggets that paint a complete portrait of the man and his times. Reading the book can be a slog, but it pays off in the information learned. As a Civil War buff, I came away from this book with the utmost admiration for Ulysses Grant. Many great figures of history were not, upon close inspection, good people. But Grant was. His struggle with alcoholism--a life-long battle he finally won--humanizes him all the more. Honest to a fault, dismissive of military airs or honors, devoted to his family, determined to repay every favor done him, and democratic in his treatment of people--including emancipating a slave given to him by his father-in-law--Grant is an example of the very best of America.