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- Oct 17, 2012
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by Ron Chernow
New York: Penguin Press, 2017. Pp. xxx, 1,074. Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $40.00. ISBN: 9781594204876
U.S. Grant, the Complex Man
Many compelling tales come out of the history of the American Civil War. One of the most interesting is the story of the slouchy Ohio-born tanner's son who progressed from leather-goods store clerk to lieutenant general and commander of the Union armies. He began the war having trouble getting any position at all in the Federal war effort, yet ended up accepting the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in Wilmer McLean's parlor. There have been many biographies of Grant in recent years, and Chernow's, while suffering from some flaws, is perhaps the best.
Grant was a complex man, and efforts to reduce him to a simplistic caricature – stolid, taciturn, drunk, butcher, stupid – simply do not stand up to much scrutiny. As Chernow shows, Grant was fundamentally honest, yet was tragically susceptible to being conned by unscrupulous men. Literally loyal to a fault, he could yet (and did) admit fault regarding men he had tangled with. (He was also quite capable of nursing a grudge.) Whatever his issues with alcohol – and this is a large and important focus of Chernow's book – he kept them mostly, if imperfectly, in check. He remained absolutely devoted to his wife and just as devoted to the cause of civil rights for the men freed by the war he won. And when faced with an opponent he could not defeat – cancer – he managed a moral and literary victory of epic proportions.
More: https://www.strategypage.com/bookreviews/1715
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