NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of A. Lincoln, a major new biography of one of America’s greatest generals—and most misunderstood presidents
Winner
of the William Henry Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography
• Finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Military History Book Prize
In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the “Trinity of Great American
Leaders.” But the battlefield commander–turned–commander-in-chief fell
out of favor in the twentieth century. In American Ulysses, Ronald C. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the twenty-first.
Based on seven years of research with primary documents—some of them
never examined by previous Grant scholars—this is destined to become the Grant
biography of our time. White, a biographer exceptionally skilled at
writing momentous history from the inside out, shows Grant to be a
generous, curious, introspective man and leader—a willing delegator with
a natural gift for managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers.
His wife, Julia Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record,
emerges in her own right as a spirited and influential partner.
Grant was not only a brilliant general but also a passionate defender of
equal rights in post-Civil War America. After winning election to the
White House in 1868, he used the power of the federal government to
battle the Ku Klux Klan. He was the first president to state that the
government’s policy toward American Indians was immoral, and the first
ex-president to embark on a world tour, and he cemented his reputation
for courage by racing against death to complete his Personal Memoirs.
Published by Mark Twain, it is widely considered to be the greatest
autobiography by an American leader, but its place in Grant’s life story
has never been fully explored—until now.
One of those rare books that successfully recast our impression of an iconic historical figure, American Ulysses
gives us a finely honed, three-dimensional portrait of Grant the
man—husband, father, leader, writer—that should set the standard by
which all future biographies of him will be measured.
Praise for American Ulysses
“[Ronald
C. White] portrays a deeply introspective man of ideals, a man of
measured thought and careful action who found himself in the crosshairs
of American history at its most crucial moment.”—USA Today
“White
delineates Grant’s virtues better than any author before. . . . By the
end, readers will see how fortunate the nation was that Grant went into
the world—to save the Union, to lead it and, on his deathbed, to write
one of the finest memoirs in all of American letters.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Ronald
White has restored Ulysses S. Grant to his proper place in history with
a biography whose breadth and tone suit the man perfectly. Like Grant
himself, this book will have staying power.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Magisterial . . . Grant’s esteem in the eyes of historians has increased significantly in the last generation. . . . [American Ulysses] is the newest heavyweight champion in this movement.”—The Boston Globe
“Superb . . . illuminating, inspiring and deeply moving.”—Chicago Tribune
“In this sympathetic, rigorously sourced biography, White . . . conveys the essence of Grant the man and Grant the warrior.”—Newsday
