★★★
Genre: History
Setting: USA
Main Characters: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Series: no
Dates Read: April 8 - April 20
Number of pages: 373
Off the Shelf (pre-2012)? Source?: no, Public library
Category for 12 in 12 challenge: History Class
I'm not going into a full review of this book basically because the three parts - his life, his reputation, and his effect on history was IMO, though well-written, lacking in enough details to make a full review worthwhile.
What this book did document was the successful way that Grant directed the entire Union forces after taking charge in 1864. It seems that so many believe that Grant was an unfeeling man because of the vast numbers of soldiers that were killed in the battles nearing the end of the war, but his own words show how he felt the necessity of being victorious. "we all felt, even those who did not object to slavery, that it was a stain on the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle...We were fighting an enemy with whom we could not make peace. We had to destroy him. No convention, no treaty was possible--- only destruction."
This book did show the difficulties that Grant went through to complete his memoirs. He had been diagnosed with threat cancer and his last years were filled with tremendous pain and discomfort. Completing the books which told his viewpoint of the war became, after his death, a massive bestseller which provided financially for his wife, Julia, and his family.
This book did not give sufficient details of the presidency of Ulysses Grant, however, it did justify the stature in which he was held in the hearts of his countrymen.
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