Product Description
The author Horace Porter, shows us a fascinating close up look at Ulysses S Grant while Grant was leading the Union Army to victory in the Civil War. Porter was a staff aid for Grant up untill the end of the war. Terrific, rare look at the future President. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Presidents; Biography ... Read more

Product Description
There never was a better American hero.He was raised by parents of modest means and sent to the U. s. Military Academy on a lucky selection.He rose to General of the Army through distinction and valor on the battlefield. A two term President of the United States, then a Good Will Ambassador to the world, he then wrote one of the best military memoirs of its kind!His great deeds and humble manner endeared him to Americans then and now! ... Read more

Product Description
Ulysses S. Grant chapter from the book-Facts about the Presidents, featuring data on the president-s background, life, and administration. Here you will find comprehensive,-uniformly arranged data on birth, family, education, nomination and election, congressional sessions, cabinet and Supreme Court appointments, vice president, first lady, and more--highlighting both the personal and political. Bibliographies guide readers to additional information on the president. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Facts about the Presidents
I know this product well of old. I have previous editions. I enjoyed the current edition. I am a history lover so this well within my experience

Now in a fully updated eighth edition
Now in a fully updated eighth edition, "Facts About The Presidents From George Washington To Barack Obama" is an essential, core addition to every school and community library. Divided into two distinct parts, "Facts About The Presidents" offers biographical data on all 44 of America's presidents, as well as comparative data with respects to presidential chronology, family history, personal background, education and career, residence, physical characteristics, death and burial, commemoratives, and general statistics. Of special note is the section devoted to presidential elections, conventions, candidates, election returns, the vice-presidents, and more. "Facts About The Presidents" is an 816-page compendium of superbly researched, organized and presented information covering everything from presidential vetos to presidential salaries, making it an invaluable reference for students as well as an engaging browse for non-specialist general readers with an interest in those who have held the office and responsibility of presiding over the nation from its founding to the present day.
... Read more

Product Description
Ulysses S. Grant was a war hero turned President. This Kindle biography with active table of contents explains Grants incredible life and rise to prominence. ... Read more

Product Description
Ulysses S. Grant was the first four-star general in the history of the United States Army and the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. As general in chief, Grant revolutionized modern warfare. Rather than capture enemy territory or march on Southern cities, he concentrated on engaging and defeating the Confederate armies in the field, and he pursued that strategy relentlessly. As president, he brought stability to the country after years of war and upheaval. He tried to carry out the policies of Abraham Lincoln, the man he admired above all others, and to a considerable degree he succeeded. Yet today, Grant is remembered as a brilliant general but a failed president.

In this comprehensive biography, Jean Edward Smith reconciles these conflicting assessments of Grant's life. He argues convincingly that Grant is greatly underrated as a president. Following the turmoil of Andrew Johnson's administration, Grant guided the nation through the post- Civil War era, overseeing Reconstruction of the South and enforcing the freedoms of new African-American citizens. His presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories, says Smith, for the same strength of character that made him successful on the battlefield also characterized his years in the White House.

Grant was the most unlikely of military heroes: a great soldier who disliked the army and longed for a civilian career. After graduating from West Point, he served with distinction in the Mexican War. Following the war he grew stale on frontier garrison postings, despaired for his absent wife and children, and began drinking heavily. He resigned from the army in 1854, failed at farming and other business endeavors, and was working as a clerk in the family leathergoods store when the Civil War began. Denied a place in the regular army, he was commissioned a colonel of volunteers and, as victory followed victory, moved steadily up the Union chain of command. Lincoln saw in Grant the general he had been looking for, and in the spring of 1864 the president brought him east to take command of all the Union armies.

Smith dispels the myth that Grant was a brutal general who willingly sacrificed his soldiers, pointing out that Grant's casualty ratio was consistently lower than Lee's. At the end of the war, Grant's generous terms to the Confederates at Appomattox foreshadowed his generosity to the South as president. But, as Smith notes, Grant also had his weaknesses. He was too trusting of his friends, some of whom schemed to profit through their association with him. Though Grant himself always acted honorably, his presidential administration was rocked by scandals.

"He was the steadfast center about and on which everything else turned," Philip Sheridan wrote, and others who served under Grant felt the same way. It was this aura of stability and integrity that allowed Grant as president to override a growing sectionalism and to navigate such national crises as the Panic of 1873 and the disputed Hayes-Tilden election of 1876.

At the end of his life, dying of cancer, Grant composed his memoirs, which are still regarded by historians as perhaps the finest military memoirs ever written. They sold phenomenally well, and Grant the failed businessman left his widow a fortune in royalties from sales of the book. His funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan closed the city, and behind his pallbearers, who included both Confederate and Union generals, marched thousands of veterans from both sides of the war.Amazon.com Review
Hiram Ulysses Grant--mistakenly enrolled in the United States Military Academy as Ulysses Simpson Grant, and so known ever since--was a failure in many of the things to which he turned his hand. An indifferent, somewhat undisciplined cadet who showed talent for mathematics and painting, he served with unexpected distinction in the U.S. war against Mexico, then repeatedly went broke as a real-estate speculator, freighter, and farmer. His reputation was restored in the Civil War, in which he fulfilled a homespun philosophy of battle: "Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on." Given to dark moods and the solace of the bottle (although far less so than his political foes made him out to be), Grant was ferocious in war, but chivalrous in peace, and offered generous terms to the defeated armies of Robert E. Lee. His enemies on the battlefield of politics showed him little honor, and they had a point: Grant's presidency was marked by a legion of corrupt lieutenants and hangers-on who built their fortunes on the back of a suffering people, and for whose actions Grant's reputation long has suffered.

Recent history has been kinder to Grant than were the chroniclers of his day, not only for his undoubted abilities as a military leader, but also for his conduct as a president who sought to rebuild a shattered nation. Jean Edward Smith, the author of fine biographies of John Marshall and Lucius D. Clay, offers compelling reasons to accept this program of revision, while acknowledging the shortcomings of Grant's administration. Surely and thoughtfully written, this sprawling but swiftly moving book stands as a true hallmark in the literature that is devoted to Grant. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (72)

Excellent portrait of the General. Weaker on the President
I really liked this book. Smith gets the big points right; Grant was a great General. He did not have a drinking problem. His presidency was better than advertised. He was clearly very upstanding as a person. He was smarter, a better speaker and writer than he's been given credit for and his reputation has taken a beating largely due to southern historians pelting him for the past 150 years.

The writing is crisp. The Civil War battles are gripping and well told for both how they are fought and the characters involved.

Grant's fascinating for so many reasons. He came almost out of no where to be this unbelievably good, honorable man, leader and general and yet he couldn't otherwise manage his household finances. He was so ethical and honest and yet he did get taken in by swindlers and himself was attracted to money. To think that he was the key Republican to create the sound money policies and conservative finances that gave the the party its identity for so many years would seem contradictory on the surface since he had such empathy for his soldiers and the common man but he could see that inflation and weak finances hurt the poorest most of all as they have no access to banks or timely information. (Take a look at Brazil sometime!).

Smith does a great job showing Grant's realization that this war was about slavery and that he was committed to fighting for total victory. His similar efforts to protect the freed slaves after the war are equally heroic and so under appreciated today.

So why not 5 stars? Well, I think Smith could have done a much better job covering his presidential years. I don't know if that means being more critical or better summarizing it. He seemed more focused on detailing who exactly was in the Cabinet and on the Supreme Court than stepping back and giving more thoughts to the events that have caused so many to say that Grant was a weak president.Smith argues that he did some great things and some of the corruption was not his fault but I think he could have covered it better.

I also was disappointed that there was no description of his funeral. I had heard that it was one of the biggest events of the age and I would have liked that to be part of the book.

In sum you get a good picture of U.S. Grant. You get to appreciate how lucky we are to have had him. I find inspiration in his humility, drive, intelligence and morality. I was impressed that on key issues he was very thoughtful and took arguments on board. Something I am not sure our leaders have been doing much of in the past 10 years or so.

As an aside I also read "Grant and Twain" by Mark Perry which is a nice follow up given it's focus on Grant's last year while writing his memoirs which are a said to be a classic that I am next looking forward to reading.

Another Indispensable Man
Abraham Lincoln was the President the nation needed at its darkest hour, the beginning of the Civil War and Grant was the general that Lincoln needed to win that war. Smith covers Grant's leadership, first in the west then as general of the army and defacto commander of the Army of the Potomac with detailed descriptions of both the strategy and the tactics that won the war for the North. He is particularly good on Grant's relationship with his subordinates--Grant was a very "hand's off" commander, telling Sherman or Sheridan or George Thomas who was given the nickname "The Rock of Chickamunga" what he wanted accomplished. He would do his best to get them the men, equipment and supplies they needed to carry out his orders but he expected them to be carried out under any circumstances.

According to Smith this trust in subordinates served Grant well during the war, not very well when he was President and was a horrible failure after the presidency when aides who he relied upon looted almost every cent he had made and saved.

There is no question of Grant's military genius or in Smith's strong appreciation for it. Some of it was simple--instead of concentrating on the advantages held by the enemy he focused on the areas in which the Union forces were superior. More importantly he demanded that those under him, the corps and division commanders, do the same. The men--particularly the enlisted men and junior officers who did the fighting and dying on the blood soaked fields of Shiloh, the Wilderness and Chattanooga--loved him. He was very quiet, traveled with a small party, often wearing the uniform of a private and the coat of a captain with the stars pinned to the shoulders as his only badges of rank. He was a real soldier--slept were he could, whether in a field or a house, ate whatever rations were available and was usually as tired, sore and dirty as the men around him.

At the same time he was a general to his bones. He never stopped thinking about the enemy and how he could defeat him. Grant refused to be bogged down in laying siege to Richmond or other political targets but realized that the only way that the Union could win was by destroying the Confederate armed forces and the will of the people in the South to support the war. His strategic vision was impeccable, his deployment of infantry, cavalry and even naval forces was without peer, his sense of grand tactics, when to hit and when to feint, when to attack frontally and when to slip sideways to stretch out the enemy line, seemed perfect.

Smith thinks that, after only Lincoln, Grant was the man who was most responsible for saving the Union during the Civil War. He makes his points very well in this biography

Enlightening
During my initial familiarization with the Civil War 20 years ago, I noted that for the most part Ulysses S. Grant was almost always dismissed as a failure, drunk, butcher or incompetent. This didn't go on in just one or two books but became something of a theme, so much so, that I began to think some of these authors should be flagged for piling on. Then I began to understand that the history was being spun, that the authors had agendas such as explaining away an embarrassing Confederate defeat and that Grant, for all his foibles, had become a whipping boy.

Over time as more facts about Grant emerged, I began to focus on him as an individual. When you do that you begin to get a better feel for the man that he was, what he achieved and, for me at least, how admirably he handled himself in even in the most trying of times. Consider the following:

1) When the war started he was not in the Army. A West Point trained officer, he could not find a command. Yet when the war ended four years later, he was responsible for all Federal forces and had captured 3 Confederate armies intact in the field. He simply had to be a military genius. No other general, North or South, captured even one!

2) Grant initiated Southern Reconstruction. No one, it seems, either realizes or wants to realize what he did at Appomattox Court House. In the surrender terms he and Robert E. Lee signed, Grant, who wrote the terms out himself in long hand, included a provision that made it impossible for any Southern soldier to be subsequently tried for war crimes. Later, when contacted by Lee that he had been indicted for treason by a Norfolk Grand Jury, Grant immediately sought an audience with President Johnson. When the President told Grant his terms of surrender were outside his authority as Commanding General, Grant threatened to resign. President Johnson backed off, the charges against Lee and others were dropped and Grant informed Lee there would be no persecution. Their agreement was firm, his word was his bond and no Southern soldier was ever to be tried for war crimes. There would be no witch hunt. Lee had never asked for the terms Grant included in the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender. It was simply one of the surrender terms stipulated by the victor, Grant, and Robert E. Lee did not miss the point. No other Southern soldier was ever again so charged.

3) After vicious riots and the wholesale murder of Blacks in Memphis and New Orleans, where the perpetrators were the civilian governments of those cities, Congress made the Army responsible for the civil administration of the South. Grant rounded up the perpetrators and enforced Black suffrage in direct violation of his orders from President Johnson. Johnson, a Southerner, did not want the laws passed by Congress enforced. He wanted white supremacy. But Grant was not about to refight the war he had just ended. Moreover, 600,000 men had not died in vain in America's bid to extend freedom to its entire population. Former slaves were now American citizens and as Congress had directed there would be no white supremacy, at least not on Grant's watch. All Americans' freedom would be preserved. Civil liberties just won would not be lost.

This is an amazingly engaging biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Marred by scandal and political turmoil Grant's Presidency is often criticized as a failure. However, his positions on the separation of church and state, his resolution of differences with Great Britain who had backed the South during the Civil War and his efforts on Reconstruction were singular achievements. Moreover, he avoided war with Spain over Cuba, halted white efforts to annihilate the Plains Indians, single handedly broke the Gold Ring, initiated civil service reforms and assured an orderly transition of power during the questionable election of 1876. But nowhere were the accomplishments of his Presidency more notable than in the protection of American civil rights. No other American President carried on so determined a struggle, against such hopeless odds, to protect freedmen in the exercise of their constitutional rights. Years later he would discuss his position on slavery with German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Grant would state: "As soon as slavery fired on the flag it was felt, we all felt, even those who did not object to slaves, that slavery had to be destroyed. We thought it was a stain on the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle."

Ulysses S. Grant was a man who very much saw things in terms of right and wrong. He is an American we can all justifiably be proud of and this excellent work by Smith is simply outstanding.Never credited with being a conciliator, under Grant's leadership the wounds of war would begin to heal. As Smith states, his funeral in 1885 was a testament to national reconciliation. Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock and Confederate Generals John B. Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee would lead a parade of 60,000 up New York City's Broadway for his internment at Riverside Park. One and a half million spectators lined the route as veterans of the Stonewall Brigade marched in unison with the Grand Army of the Republic. At Grant's request the pallbearers included an equal number of Southern and Union Generals. Above the entrance to his tomb, which faced South, were the words, Let Us Have Peace.

You will enjoy this biography
I grew up in the south. As one reviewer noted, "Grant was the devil" to any kid that grew up southern. Robert E. Lee was the hero. My high school was named Robert E. Lee. There were no US Grant high schools. We were taught that Grant was a drunk that ran a scandal plagued presidency.

I learned a lot new about Grant in this book. I now appreciate the general and the president. I also came away with a better appreciation for the leaders on both sides of the civil war.....they knew each other very well. Longstreet from the south was Grant's very close friend. The author did a good job of letting the reader know how difficult this war was on both sides. It truly was friend against friend, brother against brother.

Great read. It was recommended to me by a close friend and he was right.

A real life Forest Gump
Whether it be mistakenly enrolling at West Point(in lieu of someone who dropped out)without an invitation, to serving on our Northern borders, to fighting in the Mexican War, to traversing the Isthmus of Panama(pre canal), to failing at multiple businesses(sad and funny at times), to volunteering for the Civil War(at a low officer level) to advancing to the highest level of competency in this important war, to almost being with Lincoln when assasinated, to being President, Reconstruction fighting the KKK, building the railroads, financial crisises, and writing the best Memoirs, Grant was everywhere in the 1800's.With a stable family life and good health(until the end) he was a product of his time but seemed to have great foresight for the black experience, women sufferage, etc.In his memoirs, he almost seems to predict World Wars!I am in awe of this simple and humble man and will use his experience as I fight my own day to day battles.A very good book ... Read more

Product Description
At the time of his death, Ulysses S. Grant was the most famous person in America, considered by most citizens to be equal in stature to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet today his monuments are rarely visited, his military reputation is overshadowed by that of Robert E. Lee, and his presidency is permanently mired at the bottom of historical rankings.

In an insightful blend of biography and cultural history, Joan Waugh traces Grant's shifting national and international reputation, illuminating the role of memory in our understanding of American history. She captures a sense of what led nineteenth-century Americans to overlook Grant's obvious faults and hold him up as a critically important symbol of national reconciliation and unity. Waugh further shows that Grant's reputation and place in public memory closely parallel the rise and fall of the northern version of the Civil War story — in which the United States was the clear, morally superior victor and Grant was the emblem of that victory. After the failure of Reconstruction, the dominant Union myths about the war gave way to a southern version that emphasized a more sentimental remembrance of the honor and courage of both sides and ennobled the "Lost Cause." By the 1920s, Grant's reputation had plummeted.

Most Americans today are unaware of how revered Grant was in his lifetime. Joan Waugh uncovers the reasons behind the rise and fall of his renown, underscoring as well the fluctuating memory of the Civil War itself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Love this book!
Really sets straight a lot of the misinformation that we've been fed about Grant.I've known that he was the most popular American of the 19th Century, and yet today, people who know very little, simply parrot the lies or the exaggerations.Even more important, this is a very interesting and readable book.Great job!

U.S. Grant - Patriot Through and Through
Joan Waugh does an excellent job of laying out the argument that U.S. Grant is a hero and a patriot in this book.In the process, she lays out why his character has been tarnished over the years, inappropriately.

Although this book isn't a thorough biography of Grant's war years and Presidency, it does provide an overview of these.And through the process, debunks his traditional criticisms - that he was a drunk, and that his Presidency was one of the worst because of corruption.On the latter, there was corruption during his Presidency, but he was not personally involved, and in comparison to today, it was minimal.

A large portion of the book is spent on the year that he spent fighting his illness and writing his Memoirs, his burial (with more than 1.5 million people in attendance) and the building of his tomb on the Hudson River in New York City.These chapters, to me, were fascinating.The love and respect that the people felt for Grant was impressive and indicates that he truly was a patriot, and a great man.

I highly recommend this book for any reader interested in the history the United States.

Grant
Great Job!Its about time someone shed light on the real Grant, to give him his due.He was a great president, and most of the tales about his drinking etc are based in error.

Waugh take Grant to the cleaners.
Too many 4 & 5 star reviews in regard to the fine writing
author.
Not enough paid attention to the abashedly phony biography.
To prove the point;read the bio by Jean Smart.A full and
well written biographyabout Grant.The author may have been awake
in english class;regarding the written word. But she was
a sleep in history class!

FALLS SHORT OF ITS GOAL
Ulysses S. Grant is a figure from American history that many of us recognize without knowing many of the particulars of his life and accomplishments. We remember him as the general that Abraham Lincoln finally "found" to lead the Union Army in defeating Robert E. Lee and winning the Civil War. As Commander, Grant's military strategy was the use of superior numbers of troops fighting a war of attrition against the ever dwindling Confederate army, which simply didn't have the men or the resources to win the war. Thus his military success was based more on circumstances than on any inherent talent or military skill.

Capitalizing on his military fame, Grant was then elected to two terms as President where he, at best, bumbled along from one scandal to another, totally unfit for and incapable of the job. After leaving office - and losing all of his life savings - he wrote and published his memoirs while battling the cancer that took his life. In the background is the question of whether Grant was drunk during most of this time.

As with all popular history there is a small grain of truth to the above "story", but in Grant's case it's so miniscule that it proves misleading. This book attempts to separate fact from fiction in Grant's life and explain why the fiction has overwhelmed the facts. An admirable, and in my mind, necessary historical task but unfortunately this book comes up short in its goal. The problem being that it jumps back and forth from being both a biography and an historical critique with the result that it accomplishes neither. There's simply not enough depth here to do either topic justice.

That being said this book does provide an overview of Grant's life but if you are looking for more depth I'd suggest Grant by Jean Edward Smith; Ulysses S. Grant - Triumph Over Adversity by Brooks Simpson; Grant and Sherman by Charles Bracelen Flood; and Bruce Catton's Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command. All are excellent books about a great man that many of us know too little about.


... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
5. James Monroe
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison
10. John Tyler
11. James K. Polk
12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore
14. Franklin Pierce
15. James Buchanan
16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson
18. Ulysses S. Grant
19. Rutherford B. Hayes
20. James Garfield
21. Chester A. Arthur
22. Grover Cleveland
... Read more

Product Description
Among the autobiographies of generals and statesmen, these memoirs rank with the greatest. Mark Twain hailed them as the best of any generals since Caesar. Refreshingly candid and honest, Grants assessment of his humble beginnings, his rise to fame, and his greatest triumphs and failures has become an American classic. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume was published in 1887.

From the book's Introduction:
The preparation of these sketches is due to
the circumstance that it is my fortune to have
had the acquaintance of the persons to whom
the sketches relate. These pages may show the
marks of friendship rather than the skill of the
biographer or the research of the historian. I
have written in obedience to the rule or maxim
that we value a man by the measure of his
strength at the place where he is strongest.
Human errors and weaknesses, from which none
of us are exempt, can not be set off properly
against great thoughts expressed or great acts
performed. Errors and weaknesses mar the man,
but they can not qualify the greatness achieved.


Contents:

Rufus Choate, the Lawyer
Daniel Webster, the Statesman
President Lincoln, the Statesman and Liberator
General Grant, the Soldier and Statesman
... Read more

Product Description
In the spring of 1884 Ulysses S. Grant heeded the advice of Mark Twain and finally agreed to write his memoirs. Little did Grant or Twain realize that this seemingly straightforward decision would profoundly alter not only both their lives but the course of American literature. Over the next fifteen months, as the two men became close friends and intimate collaborators, Grant raced against the spread of cancer to compose a triumphant account of his life and times—while Twain struggled to complete and publish his greatest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.In this deeply moving and meticulously researched book, veteran writer Mark Perry reconstructs the heady months when Grant and Twain inspired and cajoled each other to create two quintessentially American masterpieces.

In a bold and colorful narrative, Perry recounts the early careers of these two giants, traces their quest for fame and elusive fortunes, and then follows the series of events that brought them together as friends. The reason Grant let Twain talk him into writing his memoirs was simple: He was bankrupt and needed the money. Twain promised Grant princely returns in exchange for the right to edit and publish the book—and though the writer’s own finances were tottering, he kept his word to the general and his family.

Mortally ill and battling debts, magazine editors, and a constant crush of reporters, Grant fought bravely to get the story of his life and his Civil War victories down on paper. Twain, meanwhile, staked all his hopes, both financial and literary, on the tale of a ragged boy and a runaway slave that he had been unable to finish for decades. As Perry delves into the story of the men’s deepening friendship and mutual influence, he arrives at the startling discovery of the true model for the character of Huckleberry Finn.

With a cast of fascinating characters, including General William T. Sherman, William Dean Howells, William Henry Vanderbilt, and Abraham Lincoln, Perry’s narrative takes in the whole sweep of a glittering, unscrupulous age. A story of friendship and history, inspiration and desperation, genius and ruin, Grant and Twain captures a pivotal moment in the lives of two towering Americans and the age they epitomized.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Enjoyable read. Not history and it did not change America
I read this as a follow up to Jean Edward Smith's excellent biography on Grant. I wanted a book that focused on Grant's last year when he wrote his memoirs and then had perhaps the largest, most celebrated funeral ever in New York. The former was only lightly addressed in Smith's book and the latter was oddly absent.

I got what I was looking for and it was satisfying reading. Grant's dignity, humility, drive and heroic effort to write while suffering so badly from cancer of the throat is truly inspiring. I am reading his memoirs now and they are as fresh as the day they were published.

As a story this is well written and an easy, interesting read. But I found two things that bothered me. First was how much overlap there was with Smith's book. (Smith's book was published in 2001 about 3 years before Perry's). While he acknowledges Smith's book in the bibliography and he has clearly done a ton of original research it just seemed odd to see at least a dozen exact "quote for quote" anecdotes in both books .

Secondly, the relationship between Grant and Twain may have influenced Twain greatly but it's not clear it was a real two way friendship. Grant was very sick. Whatever energy he had was focused on his writings to give some inheritance to his family. It's not obvious that he was giving as much thought to Twain as the author would like to think. Obviously he deeply appreciated Twain publishing the book but he had other offers on the table anyway; albeit on much less generous terms.

What is very clear from Perry's book is that Grant did write his Memoirs. In debunking the myth that Twain or others wrote it he has done a great service to Grant and historians. Grant's Memoirs are regularly cited as amongst the best non-fiction writings in American history and perhaps the best first person account on war in all history. We are fortunate that he wrote it and he deserves all the credit!

An Enjoyable Quick Read
This book is a perfect introduction for beginning history buffs. It's simple and written for the average lay-person who may not know much about Twain or Grant (that would be me, by the way). It is a quick read and thoroughly enjoyable. My dad warned me that it would be a dry reading but I found it pleasurable.

I don't know that much about U.S. Grant and Mark Twain, or also known as Samuel Clemens. I have read "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" (but will admit that I read them as a kid and didn't understand all the nuances that Twain was referring to in this book, but plan to re-read them again sometime soon as an adult to see what I missed as a kid). But I know next to nothing about Ulysses Grant. All I know of him is that he was a great general and was one of the U.S. Presidents. And this book, written more about him and his last days, is absolutely fascinating in that regards. I was almost tempted to buy his memoirs when I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday. (I think my dad has the book already.)

However, like a lot of the reviewers in here, I find the subtitle of this book a bit misleading. I kept waiting to hear more about this deep friendship between the two men and waited in vain. Yes, they were good friends, but there were little mentioned about their friendship. This book was more about their two life-stories between two different men who were born a decade a part. Their life-stories run parallel to one another and Twain met Grant close to the end of Grant's life-time.

This is just a fascinating read on two men who shaped US history, one through war and one through his penmanship. Both have strong convictions and both seem to be men of interest.

Like I said, this is perfect for the beginning history buff. If you're a history buff, this book is a little gem for the library as well.

3/19/08

Dissonance and Victory - Well Done!
I decided to read Mark Perry's treatment of "Grant and Twain" for several reasons: First, I loved Perry's duo-bio of Marshall and Eisenhower; Second, I had read individual biographies of Ulysses S. Grant and Samuel L. Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain already, having been intrigued by both men and their roles in the Civil War and Gilded Age eras of America. (Think of the old television series "Wild Wild West!" with anachronistic secret agent James West and side kick Artemis Gordon traveling around the growing country by that behemoth of high tech, The Railroad System, at the commission of President Grant himself, dealing with criminal arch genius villains and their Jules Verne-esque technologies in the middle of carpetbaggers and con men and normal everyday people trying to make an honest even moral life in it all).

And so I did read "Grant and Twain" and I am glad I did and I find myself wanting to review it not just to share it but to draw out the uncomfortable and til now not quite articulated thoughts I had on Grant and Twain in my earlier readings of the details of their lives.

And I DO recommend it and give it five stars. I give it five stars for a) Perry's lovely method and focus of comparing two famous men side by side for new perspectives, b) His revealing a, to me, hitherto unknown connection between the two men, c) His focus on the 15 or so months where Grant wrote his famous Memoirs (which I am now, finally, going to read) and Twain facilitated him, and d) Early hints in this Perry work of some themes about war and democracies more fully realized in the Marshall and Eisenhower work.

The "dissonance" I allude to in the title of this review is that, while Grant and Twain are FAMOUS, their lives were full of downs and ups and arguably each died in unhappy circumstances. Grant died of cancer, using the writing of his memoirs to energize himself to see it through to the end as his last campaign, though incidentally creating what Perry characterizes as the United States' greatest work of nonfiction. Grant wrote his memoirs partly as a result of having been misled by a business partner and having to pay off debts to retain Grant's sense of dignity and honor. Oh yes, and Grant's eight years at president were a bit marred by constant financial scandals of government officials he'd naively trusted to be honorable in the positions he'd given them.

Twain died of old age basically, but was embittered at the end of his life at the deaths of his wife and oldest daughter, and disgusted with the reliable dishonesty and exploitation and hypocrisy of men. And oh yes, near bankrupt from inept business dealings as well.

So when I first read the bios of these two great men it bothered me... was dying in pain and embitterment a worthy end for great men like these? For heaven's sake what could the rest of us aspire to? Life is so complicated when there is not a 'lived happily ever after' ending to biographies like these.

I could barely stand to re-read the "sad bad bits" in the stories of both men... skimming along quickly at times to the interesting action bits such as the when Grant decides to write his memoirs and who to have publish them; the point where Twain finds the inspiration needed to complete the story of Huckleberry Finn(quietly dedicated to General Grant at the very front, according to Perry's convincing analysis, who characterizes Huck Finn as the United States' greatest work of fiction).

And yet having completed Perry's book, I have became satisfied and at peace with the mixed happinesses of the lives of both these great men. The Gilded Age was a time after the Civil War where the pursuit of the dollar became rampant. "The Rise of Silas Lapham" was published in this era by Twain's good friend William Dean Howells. Twain lived next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". The thrashing of the United States about attitudes to slavery and commerce continued to dominate this century.

And yet in all this dissonance death and discord... two great men married, raised families, pursued careers, pursued concepts of professional honor and dignity, faced literal and figurative life and death often and unpredictably, and at the end, died. They "won" because they became "famous" and they became famous because their names became household words. But are they to be emulated for having become famous? Are they to be emulated for the clarity and brilliance, the insights of their most famous literary works? Are they to be emulated for the example they set of sheer persistence if not bravado making a life with what they were given. As all of us are challenged to do?

Well done Grant!; well done Twain!; and well done Perry!

A Story about Two American Historical Figures
Mark Perry's GRANT AND TWAIN:THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA is one of those books where the old adage, "never judge a book by looking at its cover," comes to mind.However, never judge a book by reading its title may be a better term.The subject matter of U.S. Grant and Mark Twain is quite interesting, and Perry parallels Grant and Twain's lives.Unfortunately, Perry does not show how the two men grew closer as friends during Grant's last few months of life in 1885.The entire aspect of the book concentrates on Grant's life and death experiences while completing his memoirs, and how Twain completes his most famous, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN.Possibly, this book is a tie into the story behind Twain's opening passage to Huck Finn (The book's premise almost resembles the Citizen Kane story, and how the movie revolves around the mystery behind Rosebud).

Perry attempts to elaborate on the lives of these two monumental figures in American history.Perry offers a short biography of the two men, and Perry credits personal accounts from family and friends as to the friendship between the two men.However, the story revolving around Twain and Grant's friendship never quite meet in this book.There is a sense of disconnect in Perry's attempt to cite how their friendship changed America; the stories are separate from one another, and their is not one inkling of emotion on how one felt about the other.The narrative dwells on Twain helping Grant publish his memoirs.

As a recommendation for reading about U.S. Grant or Mark Twain, GRANT AND TWAIN:THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA, should be read after reading Grant's memoirs and Huckleberry Finn.

Grant eclipses Twain... for an excellent read.
Mark Perry's "Grant and Twain" may well be the only work in which the personality of Mark Twain plays second fiddle to another.Whereas Twain was a giant of literature, Grant was a giant of humanity and this book offers plenty of evidence in that regard.

U.S. Grant was such a mass of contradiction.He was a soldier with a distaste for war, yet he possessed little fear in battle and deployed his forces with vicious ferocity.He was a man of great ethical conviction, yet as president he headed one of the more corrupt administrations in our history.With a clarity no doubt inspired by Grant's writings, Perry explores those contradictions and how they made his relationship with Twain noteworthy.

A lesser historian might have just focused on Grant's final year of life, and how he approached his final illness with dignity and stoicism.But Perry finds deeper meaning in the ways that the mutual admiration between Grant and Twain came to influence them both.

Twain's effort to finish Huckleberry Finn dovetailed nicely with Grant's reluctance to write his memoirs.Grant's perspective on the South helped Twain flesh out some of the nuances within his work.The novel had stalled in the writing process and in fact had been shelved by Twain as having no promise.Meanwhile, Twain moved from basically looking for a publishing coup (that of winning the rights to Grant's memoirs) to a more nurturing role as writing mentor to the General.Twain's numerous business failures were legion, but Grant's writings were a notable exception.Perhaps that was due to the respect that Twain held for Grant prior to their association, or more a reflection of the admiration that he developed as the ailing ex-president applied himself to the task of putting his memories to paper.

Grant began his memoirs after being diagnosed with cancer of the tongue.As time elapsed, the effort to give his perspective on his military career and the Civil War became a counterpoint to his illness; perhaps even to the point of prolonging his life somewhat.

Grant and Twain is excellent history.It's informative, readable and enjoyable.And to it's credit, this book will (should) foster renewed interest in reading Huckleberry Finn and Personal Memoirs by U.S. Grant.
... Read more

Product Description
Biographical profile of Jay Gould, railroad tycoon and baronof Wall Street. Jay Gould, one of the richest and most hated men in America in the 1880s, was an elusive, slippery character, difficult to assess and more difficult to understand. The secretive tycoon was brilliant and ruthless, perhaps the quintessential "robber baron."In a fiery sermon delivered a week after Gould's death, the Rev. G. Inglehart said: "Gould, with his 70 millions, was one of the colossal failures of our time. He was a purely selfish man. His greed consumed his charity. He was like death and hell -- gathering in all, giving back nothing." Honed by a frenzied media to despise Gould, most Americans shared this view.

These views were overly simplistic. Coming from strong Yankee roots, he was not the Shylock portrayed in the papers, nor the “complex Jew,” as Henry Adams called him. On the contrary, he was a descendant of New England puritans, a brilliant man who valued time with his family as much as the financial wars in which he was engaged with Cornelius Vanderbilt, Daniel Drew and others to wrestle control of the Erie Railroad, to corner the American gold market and to ultimately end with control of more than 15% of the nation's rails including Union Pacific. Award-winning author and syndicated columnist Daniel Alef, who has written more than 300 biographical profiles of America’s greatest tycoons, brings out the story of Gould and his remarkable life of ups, downs and achievements.
[5,071-word Titans of Fortune article]. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of Presidential Speeches from George Washington's first Inaugural Address in 1789 to the second term Inauguration address by George W. Bush.

... Read more

Product Description
Whether putting Generals Burnside, Hooker, and Robert E. Lee in their place, or listening to foul-mouthed General Sherman, Hiram Ulysses S. 'Useless' Grant offers an amusingly warped perspective on the Civil War. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (86)

Grant Speaks
Civil War history buffs need to buy this book now! It has all the drama and cogency of Grant's "original" memoirs with none of the superannuated dryness of old literature. Ev Ehrlich takes tongue-in-cheek literary license with the life of Grant and superimposes a sort of ironic character twist that speaks to both our humanity and the role of fate and chance.

From its poignant opening, "To begin with, I'm dying," to Grant's wistful hope for reincarnation as himself at the end of the book, the reader is caught up in a mix of fiction and the reality of our country's great Civil War. Ehrlich's sly and totally humanistic humor is at times knee slapping but always irreverent. He depicts Mary Todd Lincoln as a hussy who tries to seduce Grant (probably fiction), but portrays "Cump" Sherman as the truly profane semi-nut case that General Sherman was.

At nearly 400 pages, the reader is nevertheless swept quickly through "Hiram" Grant's saga that begins with his changing identities with the real Ulysses Grant, Hiram's early career at West Point where he meets Sherman and others (crazy "Stonewall" Jackson, vain Don Carlos Buell, etc.), his exploits in the Mexican War, through his conquest of Robert E. Lee. We learn of Grant's contempt for Robert E. Lee (he calls him a "sissified mama's boy," who also caused more deaths on the battlefield through stubbornness and pride).

Then we get a wry glimpse of Grant's absolute failure as a two-term chief executive presiding over one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of the United States. Grant's first-person narrative takes us through a sadly hilarious "deer-in-the-headlights" view where Grant is far beyond his depth. After his presidency Grant loses everything in an investment scam and must begin writing his memoirs to keep his family out of the poor house.

Finally, and probably the central theme of book, we learn the true meaning and purpose of the Civil War (at least in Grant's eyes). Without spoiling this for the reader (Grant gets to it towards the end as he goes hat-in-hand to millionaire financier William Vanderbilt for a lone), we learn why so many men had to die. "Saving the Union," we learn, went far deeper than jingoistic slogans and the flamboyant idealism of Abraham Lincoln.

Although the author weaves fantasy and fiction into the truth of the matter, in the end, there is more truth of the matter than fiction. You owe it to yourself to read this book.

Cult Of Lee!!!
This one is for the time capsule. Don't let the cult of Lee dissuade you from this book, I have literally bought 25 copies, and it is like a virus, i.e. rave reviews among my peers, and spreading. I see a movie with Russell Crowe. Sure, it may not be 100% accurate, but really, what the hell is. Ev, if you are reading this, YOU ROCK!!!!! PLEASE, WRITE AGAIN!!

Silly and inaccurate, but fun
U.S.Grant poses one of the major questions for modern historians: he was a quiet, plain little man, with no common sense, seemingly, who turned out to be a great general. The how and the why of this have puzzled biographers for generations. Now Ev Ehrlich, a novelist, has written Grant Speaks, and tried to solve the riddle through the use of fiction. I think his explanation is largely a failure, but the book is great fun to read, if you can live with its shortcomings.

The conceit of the book is that this is the first draft of Grant's "Personal Memoirs", the autobiography that he wrote on his deathbed in the 1880's. There are problems with this premise from the start. Grant's real book concludes with Lee's surrender, for instance, while this one goes on to recount his presidency and even his world tour. And of course Grant had a heroic struggle to finish the book before he died (and he just made it) so writing a first draft seems unlikely, to say the least.

There are also problems with accuracy. Grant (and others) repeatedly speak of "25,000 dead" at Shiloh, when the actual total, for both sides, was more like 3500. Grant bitterly complains that Lee was "Washington's grandson-in-law" when in fact he was Washington's step-great-grandson-in-law. There are also some annoying omissions. For instance, the famous story of Grant trying to meet with his old army friend McClellan, waiting in the anteroom of his office for several days while Mac wouldn't see him, is strangely left out. Sherman convincing Grant to stay with the army after Shiloh (when Grant was on the point of resigning) is also not present.

So what do we get instead? Outrageous and somewhat overdrawn characterizations of the great figures of the day, with enough accuracy blended in so that it's hard to discern where the reality ends and Ehrlich's invention begins. Sherman uses the word f--k every other sentence (sometimes every other word, seemingly), Lincoln is amazingly irreverent in private, most everyone else turns out to have been a buffoon or an idiot. Oddly, to my mind, this book is gentler with George Thomas than the real book Grant really did write. The women in the book are dealt with in a generally silly fashion: the author has Mary Lincoln actually trying to seduce Grant, one of the least believable things I've ever read in historical fiction.

Ehrlich would have done better to take the General's advice and conclude the book with the end of the Civil War, also. Instead, the book stumbles into his presidency, with Grant degenerating into a character straight out of a modern American sitcom, complete with a cranky father and crankier father-in-law living with or near him, and making asses of themselves saying the most outrageous things concievable. Mrs. Grant turns out to want to be the First Lady so she can turn the White House into a parody of an old South slave plantation. It's all a bit much.

The plot does move along though, and it's reasonably well-written and the narrative flows. Though it's clearly not written by someone from the 19th century, it's fun and harmless, unless someone who's completely ignorant tries to use this as actual history.

This is a Gem!
I picked up a used copy of Grant Speaks while I was traveling, and I was quite happy that I did!Ehrlich does a great job of getting at something deeper through the life of one of our more troubled Presidents.

While I don't take to heart Ehrlich's characterizations of some historical figures in this book, I feel he may have gotten more at the root of what some of the people, such as Grant, may have been going through as they struggled through their lives. I've read other historic fiction books, and frankly I've been disappointed. The tendancy to write a biography with dashes of created conversations is easy to fall into, and unfortunately many of Ehrlich's peers are trapped by their own need to be utterly faithful to history.The point of fiction is to explore what we do not know.I have quibbles with parts of the book, but as for creativity Ehrlich hits a home run.

Especially now, while the US is at war, this book becomes a poignant look at what it means to be an American.I recommend it highly!

Shallow fantasy
If you enjoy history-based fiction, you probably won't care for Grant Speaks where the emphasis is on fiction and too little on history.The author seems to think that by larding a few historical incidents into the tale, incidents that are skewed by the author's fiction, the reader would forgive the license taking.

But one of the draws of fictionalizing history, at least for me, is to gain a better, closer perspective of what happened, not a ridiculous parody built on selected episodes from history.Grant Speaks begins promisingly with a pastiche of what one would imagine might be the voice of Grant, sick and tired and writing his memories as his wife's retirement income.But it quickly drops all but a suggestion of this voice to become an entirely too modern re-imagining of Grant's life.It's so modern, in fact that it comes complete with evil twin and Julia Grant giving her suitor a hand job.By the time Grant takes his peyote trip to see God, all willingness to suspend disbelief had left me. ... Read more

Product Description
Part Three: The Wilderness Campaign; Surrender at Appomattox. Among the autobiographies of generals and statesmen, these memoirs rank with the greatest. Mark Twain hailed them as the best of any generals since Caesar. Refreshingly candid and honest, Grants assessment of his humble beginnings, his rise to fame, and his greatest triumphs and failures has become an American classic. ... Read more

Product Description
General William Tecumseh Sherman was known as the first modern general. Commanding Union troops during the American Civil War. He was also heavily criticized for the harshness of the Scorched Earth policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. He is the commander responsible for the burning of Atlanta as depicted in Gone With the Wind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

What a Heartless Individual!
But, what an historical figure. No Presidential aspirations, nothing. But destruction and devastation to win a war. Hmmm. Today, his actions would be considered barbaric and uncivilized. Consider what's going on at the Mexican border, now.... Maybe Sherman could straighten it out, hmmmm...

Memoirs of General Sherman
The book was in good condition (as I ordered) excellent price,it arrived in a resonable amount of time. I am very satisfied with my over all experience and I would recommend them to all future buyers.

Sherman reveals himself
W T Sherman, General, U S Army was a most impresive commander. His memoirs go a long way in explaining some of the 'whys' of the great campaigns he led. And lead he did. The general went so far, on occason,as to eschew use of a tent and slept on the ground with his men using only a tent-half. The letters in the book provide insight into Lincoln's, Grant's, Sherman's et al's thinking on many issues related to the prosecution of the Civil War. A great American wrote a great book.

Memoirs of William Tecumseh Sherman
I'm amazed at how beautifully the people of that time period used our English language, so different from current day prose with all it's crudities. A wonderful picture of the thought and sympathies of the time and so different from what my expectations were, based on my readings of the Civil War and afterwards. Great experience!

Little more to say...
If you enjoy reading then you should get this book. Its subject matter, the American Civil War and the many characters in that great tragedy, is fascinating enough by itself, but what makes this book extraordinary reading is the amazing grasp and skill of the writer. General Sherman's narrative brings to life the day to day experiences of the officers and men engaged in one of history's epic struggles, the outcome of which resonates in our world still. ... Read more

Product Description
The biographies of four great political leaders.

Politicians include:
Theodore Roosevelt
James Garfield
Ulysses S. Grant
George Washington ... Read more