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 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.
"        Thanks to Perret's own skill at exposing the inner dynamics of warfare, the reader comes to understand what actually happened on Civil War battlefields. His color-
ful and lucid accounts of military engagements, which constitute the bulk of the book, make Perret a worthy successor to Bruce Catton, James M. McPherson, and others who have captured the drama and tragedy of the Civil War."
--Eric Foner, The New York Times Book Review

"        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

"        The Grant that emerges is astonishingly human. . . . In lively prose, Perret delivers a vivid portrait of a resolute man in a tumultuous century, courageously and cease-
lessly moving forward despite any setback."
--The Boston Globe

"        What distinguishes this narrative are Perret's bristling style and his skillful blend of tactical analysis and conventional 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

Ulysses S. Grant's story is one of the great American adventures. Geoffrey Perret's account, based on extensive research and using new material, offers fresh insights into Grant the commander and Grant the president. Perret describes Grant's innovative military genius and his efforts to lead the rich, industrialized United States as the first modern president. From a frontier boyhood to West Point; from heroic feats in the Mexican War to electoral triumph; from his two-year journey around the world to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs; Grant is wholly captured in this absorbing and exciting account.

Geoffrey Perret's other books include Old Soldiers Never Die: The Life of Douglas MacArthur and A Country Made by War. He was educated at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.