Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier & President (Modern Library (Paperback)) - Softcover

Perret, Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 037575220X ISBN 13: 9780375752209

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 1998

Synopsis

Not since Bruce Catton has there been such an absorbing and exciting biography of Ulysses S. Grant. “Grant is a mystery to me,” said William Tecumseh Sherman, “and I believe he is a mystery to himself.” Geoffrey Perret’s account offers new insights into Grant the commander and Grant the president that would have astonished both his friends, such as Sherman, and his enemies.
 
Based on extensive research, including material either not seen or not used by other writers, this biography explains for the first time how Ulysses S. Grant’s military genius ultimately triumphed as he created a new approach to battle. He was, says Perret, “the man who taught the army how to fight.”
 
As president, Grant was widely misunderstood and underrated. That was mainly because he was, as Perret shows, the first modern president—the first man to preside over a rich, industrialized America that had put slavery behind it and was struggling to provide racial justice for all.
 
Grant’s story—from a frontier boyhood to West Point; from heroic feats in the Mexican War to grinding poverty in St. Louis; from his return to the army and eventual election to the presidency; from his two-year journey around the world to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs—is one of the most adventurous and moving in American history.

About this title

Review

Ulysses S. Grant worked with Red Cloud, chief of the Lakota Sioux, to create an arguably more humane Indian policy--"no president could have done more," argues Geoffrey Perret, whose reassessment of Grant as a politician is his biography's finest achievement. Not that he scants his subject's military genius; the relentless, aggressive campaigns that won the Civil War are skillfully outlined and analyzed. Grant emerges in this nuanced portrait as a quintessential American: he is depicted as a restless rover perpetually in search of "movement, drama, adventure." Firmly situated in his time, he nonetheless seems a strikingly modern man.

From the Inside Flap

"A fast-paced, highly readable narrative . . . stimulating biography."
--James I. Robertson
"I was impressed by the sweep and power of the narrative. Readers will find a Grant they never before encountered. A compelling book."
--John Y. Simon, editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant
Not since Bruce Catton has there been such an absorbing and exciting biography of Ulysses S. Grant. "Grant is a mystery to me," said Sherman, "and I believe he is a mystery to himself." Geoffrey Perret's account offers new insights into Grant the commander and Grant the president that would have astonished both his friends, such as Sherman, and his enemies.
Based on extensive research, including material either not seen or not used by other writers, this biography explains for the first time how Grant's military genius ultimately triumphed as he created a new approach to battle. He was, says Perret, "the man who taught the army how to fight."
As president, Grant was widely misunderstood and underrated. That was mainly because he was, as Perret shows, the first modern president--the first man to preside over a rich, industrialized America that had put slavery behind it and was struggling to provide racial justice for all.
Grant's story--from a frontier boyhood to West Point; from heroic feats in the Mexican War to grinding poverty in St. Louis; from his return to the army and eventual election to the presidency; from his two-year journey around the world to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs--is one of the most adventurous and moving in American history.
"What distinguishes this narrative are Perret's bristling style and his skillful blend of tactical analysis andconventional biography. . . . Perret persuasively presents a man who endured and conquered all: binge drinking, rivals, false friends, and even the cancer that could not stop him from completing his memoirs."
--Kirkus Reviews

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 037575220X
• ISBN 13: 9780375752209
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 560