American Ulysses

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the author of A. Lincoln, a major new biography of one of Americas greatest generalsand most misunderstood presidentsFinalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Military History Book PrizeIn his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the Trinity of Great American Leaders. But the battlefield commanderturnedcommander-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 documentssome of them never examined by previous Grant scholarsthis 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 leadera 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 governments 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 Grants life story has never been fully exploreduntil 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 manhusband, father, leader, writerthat should set the standard by which all future biographies of him will be measured.