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- The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands
The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands
The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands
Ulysses S. Grant was a victorious general and an overwhelmingly popular president, yet within decades of his death, his reputation was in tatters. Now, from master biographer H.W. Brands comes a sweeping irresistible portrait that restores Grant to the eminence he deserves. The Man Who Saved theUnion sheds new light on Grant, in all his heroism and his considerable weakness, and argues that he was an honorable and resolute leader who consolidated the political achievements of the Civil War and was the last presidential defender of black civil rights for nearly a century.
With his gift for storytelling and a tremendous command of the documentary record, Brands traces Grant's rise from obscurity to the pinnacles of power. An indifferent student at West Point, he failed utterly at civilian life. But when the Civil War broke out he gratefully enlisted and proved an adept and bold strategist, impressing Lincoln so much that the president named him head of the Union army. ("He makes thing git! Where he is, things move!" Lincoln said.) Then, in 1865, in one unforgettable week, Grant won the war and lost his commander in chief to an assassin's bullet. Under Lincoln's Democratic successor, Grant feared that all the war's gains would be lost. He had never had any interest in politics, but when his party turned to him, Grant agreed to run and to attempt to unite North and South once more.
The Man Who Saved the Union is the first full biography of Grant to appear in a decade. With exciting scenes of battle and a sobering study of how close America came to fracturing again in the fragile years after the surrender at Appomattox, it is a passionate portrayal of principled leadership and physical and moral courage.
DOUBLEDAY, HARDCOVER, 1ST EDITION, 1ST PRINTING, 2012.
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A RED "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.