Ulysses S. Grant

Sherman said, "Grant is a mystery to me, and I believe he is a mystery to himself." Geoffrey Perret's absorbing biography offers new insights into Grant the commander and the president that would have astonished both his friends and his enemies. Based on extensive, previously unseen research, Perret explains for the first time how Grant's military genius ultimately triumphed as he created a new approach to battle. He shows how Grant was widely misunderstood and underrated as president because he was the first modern leader, presiding over a rich, industrialized America that had put slavery behind it and was struggling to provide racial justice for all. From a frontier boyhood to heroic war feats, from the presidency to his final battle to finish his Personal Memoirs, Grant's story is one of the most adventurous and moving in American history.