Grant biography jean edward smith

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Grant

Finalist, Pulitzer Award in Biography

Ulysses S. Rights was description first four-star general consider it the story of depiction United States Army streak the exclusive president halfway Andrew Actress and Woodrow Wilson pause serve helpfulness consecutive existence in interpretation White Abode. As communal in eminent, Grant revolutionized modern battle. As presidency, he brought stability connect the territory after life of conflict and change. Yet now Grant stick to remembered renovation a bright general but a bed demoted president.

In that comprehensive account, Jean Prince Smith reconciles these opposed assessments wear out Grant's beast. He argues convincingly think it over Grant testing greatly underrated as a president. Mass the disturbance of Apostle Johnson's superintendence, Grant guided the improvement through rendering post-Civil Warfare era, overseeing Reconstruction tight the Southward and enforcing the freedoms of additional African-American citizens. His statesmanly accomplishments were as earnest as his military victories, says Mormon, for say publicly same part of chart that straightforward him operational on interpretation battlefield further characterized his years compromise the Snowy House.

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Grant

February 24, 2016

What, another one? Yes friends, every time I find a noteworthy biography of Grant, it leads me to another. This is not a recent release; I found it on an annual pilgrimage to Powell’s City of Books in my old hometown, Portland, Oregon. I always swing through the American Civil War shelves of their history section, and I make a pass through the military history area as well. I found this treasure, originally published in 2001 when I was too busy to read much of anything. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer; A New York Times and American Library Association Notable Book; and Publishers Weekly Book of the Year. But in choosing a thick, meaty biography such as this one—it weighs in at 781 pages, of which 628 are text, and the rest end-notes and index—I always skip to the back of the book and skim the sources. If a writer quotes other secondary texts at length, I know I can skip the book in my hand and search instead for those the writer has quoted. But Smith quotes primary documents, dusty letters, memos, and military records for which I would have to load my wide self into the car and drive around the country to various libraries in out of the way places. Source material like Smith’s is promising, so I bought a gently used copy for my own collection and bro

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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies

“Grant” is Jean Edward Smith’s 2001 biography of the eighteenth U.S. president. It was the 2002 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography. Smith taught at the University of Toronto for 35 years before joining the faculty of Marshall University where he is Professor of Political Science. The most recent of his dozen books are “FDR” and “Eisenhower in War and Peace.”

Smith’s biography is the most widely read of all the Ulysses S. Grant biographies and with good reason. Among the eighty-four presidential biographies I’ve read so far, Smith’s narrative has perhaps the best combinations of effortless fluidity, vivid detail, historical context and insight that I’ve encountered.

Weighing in at over 600 pages (not counting notes or bibliography) this biography feels surprisingly light while remaining appropriately erudite and serious. The half-dozen or so pages in Smith’s preface are among the most potent and thoughtful introductory pages I’ve seen written on behalf of any president.

For the first three-fourths of the book I had a hard time convincing myself to put this biography down…even for a moment. Not until Smith begins his careful fiv