Ron Chernow

"Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and 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 Ron 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."--Book jacket.

Grant

Andrew John Kinney

This book is, in my opinion, better than Chernow's Hamilton, and it has transformed my understanding of Grant. 

Grant's strategy in the destruction of the South's armies was head and shoulders above every other Union general's approach to defeating the Confederacy, and his self-effacing manner, combined with a decisiveness and coolness under fire rarely equaled in the history of American generalship, made him the immovable object that ended Lee's hopes for success. The book goes far to dispel the myth that Grant only won because he had greater resources in men and equipment; first, the success of the Union was a very near thing, made possible only by Grant's strategy of sending Sherman into Georgia, and second, Grant won many battles by his brilliant tactical execution. The fall of Atlanta in 1864 assured Lincoln's re-election, which was widely believed to be impossible before the good news from Georgia. If McClellan had been elected, there would almost certainly have been a negotiated settlement and U,.S. history would have been decidedly different. 

The book makes clear that the myth of Lee's prowess as a commander is indeed a myth, in that Lee, while a great tactician, had no strategy for winning the war other than hoping to bring in the British or French on the side of the Confederacy by winning set-piece battles, and Lee seemed to ignore the lessons of the American Revolution. Washington had learned, at the last possible moment, that winning battles was far less important than keeping the Continental Army in existence; Lee was wedded to a defense of Virginia and Richmond that severely limited his ability to maneuver. Grant took full advantage of this by keeping continuous pressure on Lee's army while simultaneously sending Sherman into the deep south to destroy southern industry and agriculture in order to deny supplies to Lee's army, and also using Sheridan's cavalry to destroy the farms in the Shenandoah Valley closer to Lee, and tearing up rail lines in Lee's rear. All this patiently executed work meant that by 1865 Lee's army was literally starving and was largely bereft of ammunition. Throughout 1864 and 1865, Grant's greatest fear was that Lee would break out and unite with General Johnston in North Carolina, but Lee allowed himself to be worn down in front of Richmond by Grant and by desertions from his Army that were often 5-10% per month, until all he could do was flee west in hope of supplies, and the outcome of that move was surrender at Appomattox.

Grant has been tarred as a corrupt president, but he was nothing of the kind. He was naive and too trusting, but he was personally absolutely honest. No president did more than Grant until LBJ to help blacks in the south, which Frederic Douglass recognized with strong emotion. The level of terror against blacks in the south immediately after the end of the Civil War cannot be overstated, and Grant's administration did much to smash the KKK; for a time, at least, blacks were truly enfranchised. It was after Grant that Jim Crow laws prevented blacks from voting. Sadly we see a resurgence of this today with Republican voter suppression in Georgia and North Carolina. Funny (actually sad) how some things haven't changed.

Grant's goodness and kindness as a man was touching to learn about; it is not what we generally think of when we think of Grant. He was a demanding commander, but he was good to his men, and his prowess as a logistician meant that they were almost always well fed and clothed - no small feat in the Nineteenth Century. He was famously even-tempered, never cursing or yelling, though he would smile at profane outbursts by Sherman or Sheridan, both of whom he loved for their aggressive and effective leadership. The only time in the entire war when he was seen to erupt in anger was when he came upon a quartermaster viciously whipping a horse; Grant had an unusual fondness for, and rapport with animals, horses in particular. As a consequence of his love of horses, he was an extraordinary horseman, setting equestrian records at West Point that were not exceeded for over 50 years after he graduated. He was also, like Lincoln, immensely physically strong - not something most people expected from a rather slight man like Grant; he weighed about 160 pounds when he commanded the Union armies, but he could easily heft a 100 pound raw cow hide and throw it into a pile of hides. 

Grant was famously described by John Hay as "providing the precise information required, in the fewest words possible, unlike the whiny and excessively wordy despatches of McClellan" (my paraphrase). His ability to communicate effectively was established beyond a shadow of a doubt by his "Personal Memoirs", which were written under horrific conditions as he slowly succumbed to throat cancer. The orders he wrote were clear, concise, and written in such a way as to make them nearly impossible to misunderstand.

I am so glad that a good friend of mine recommended this book to me. It has set the record straight for me about Grant, and it is entirely fitting that a statue of Grant is finally being erected at West Point, joining Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur in the select group of West Point graduates so honored by the Military Academy. Grant was far ahead of his time in his views on racial justice and many other issues as President, and he was in fact a great general, without whom it is likely the Civil War would not have been won, or not won completely. He deserves the full reconsideration that Chernow's book affords him.

Michael W

A pleasant read, especially if you’re already positively disposed toward U.S. Grant and feel he’s been a bit roughly treated by history. That said, Chernow (much like with Hamilton) has a tendency to be charitable to the point of fawning. An accessible sketch of an interesting man, but Chernow does dwell too much on alcoholism speculation and his coverage of the Grant presidency felt disjointed and episodic. His portrayal of Grant’s post-presidency is excellent, poignant and wonderfully written.

No groundbreaking scholarship here (sourcing seems to be largely from previous biographies of Grant) and prose leaning toward the over-written (Mr. Chernow has a gleeful obsession with words marked DATED in the dictionary). I’m unconvinced that this volume makes much of a contribution beyond harnessing Chernow’s post-Hamilton celebrity to introduce more folks to U.S. Grant, but that’s worthwhile. And so is this book.

Melody Izard

The south did try to rewrite history. Tried to say the Civil war was not about slavery. Anyone who tried to help reconstruct the south by helping the freed slaves were carpetbaggers or scalawags. All the violence and the lynchings and the progress and the smashing down of the progress was re-written with Jim Crow laws and up went the confederate memorials that sit in the center of so many small and not so small towns. 
So much to learn about the Civil war and it's generals at its aftermath. After reading this book, I doubt there is anything else about Grant you can learn. So well written and researched.

Wynn Netherland

Perhaps my favorite Chernow book to date, which is saying a lot. I'm not sure if it's because I learned much about Grant (growing up in the South, I knew little of his life before Vicksburg and after Appomattox, even though he served two terms as President) or because I found him relatable. Loyal to a fault, a little too eager to trust, he was a man ill-equipped for ordinary life yet seemed to thrive in a crisis. 

As always, Chernow employs a full cast. The focus is on Grant, but by the end I felt invested in Washburne, Rawlins, Sherman, and even the hard-to-like members of his family.

Jeremy Anderberg

“When did [Grant] ever turn back? He was not that sort; he could no more turn back than time! . . . Grant was one of the inevitables; he always arrived; he was invincible as a law: he never bragged—often seemed about to be defeated when he was in fact on the eve of a tremendous victory.” —Walt Whitman

My tour through the presidents continued out of order with my delving into Ulysses Grant. Until recently, he was considered a president worth forgetting, despite his heroic leadership during the Civil War.

In recent years, though, scholars have been revitalizing his sad legacy, and scores of armchair historians are discovering that his presidency wasn’t as bad as it’s been made out to be.

Of those those new books, Chernow’s Grant was the easy choice for where to start. His Washington: A Life remains possibly my favorite of the presidential reads thus far. And ultimately, I came away admiring Grant even more than I thought I would. Washington was perhaps the better read, but Grant was the better, more relatable person.

Few presidents have come from more humble circumstances — Lincoln did, LBJ did, perhaps one or two more. What was interesting about Grant’s rise, however, was how quickly it happened. When the Civil War broke out, he was working as a clerk at his father’s shop in small-town Illinois; it was humiliating. This 38-year-old was relying on his ne’er-do-well father and trying to tamp down the far-spread rumors of his alcoholism.

But the war, as it did dozens of personalties, almost immediately elevated Grant to a station of great importance. With a couple of small-ish victories out west, and just a couple years removed from near destitution, Ulysses was suddenly leading the charge and delivering the Union army’s greatest victories.

What was it about the man that nobody else could see? Why did he not find success in “real” life but all of sudden rise to the occasion in battle? It ultimately came down to his bulldog spirit. Where other union generals overestimated Confederate forces and whimpered away from fighting and chances at annihilation, Grant went on the attack and never stopped attacking. He just kept on keeping on.

Inspiring. Truly.

Then the man spent 8 years as president trying to enact Reconstruction, but a corrupt Cabinet and petulant Southern politicians, combined with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes after Grant’s two terms, ultimately led to the failures of those inspired Reconstruction efforts. That is what led to Grant’s poor image — it was not a poor performance as Commander-in-Chief.

Boy oh boy. I could write a lot more because Grant was such a fascinating figure. And I’m so glad that the unparalleled Ron Chernow chose him as a subject. This is a phenomenal book. If you read it, you’ll be better for it.

Jeni Enjaian

This book took me longer than I expected to finish. I knew it was long but each page seemed to take forever due to the larger print I had on my kindle.
That aside, I really enjoyed this book. I learned so much more about Grant that I never knew. I also learned a lot of context regarding other things that I knew. Chernow has incredible skill with telling the life stories of famous men who people think they knew so much about.
I highly recommend this book.

Alyssa C Smith

Jonathan Phillips

Kevin Owens

James Tucker

Cat Josephson

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Named one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review. 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

Grant

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