Grant & Ron Chernow Jr.: A Father and Son's Remarkable Journey Through History

ochiBan: Chernow vividly portraits U.S.Grant. The reader becomes affectionately attached to the man and reconsiders a lot of the historical character.
While it is the task of a Biographer to invoke these feelings towards his subject, it is not always as successful as here! However, again as with all biographers, one wonders, how situations can be viewed through such different angles. It makes you want to learn more about the man.
However, his love for his family, and his attachement to his children is so moving, that one would have loved to hear a few more words, about how they turned out!
Irrespective of ones view of the man, the book is a fluid read. Naturally the heroic role in the civil war needs no explanation, but the description of motives and actions thereafter and during his presidency makes you want to know more about that "boring epoche" in american history.

Germany on May 27, 2023

Edward Webb: Speedy delivery and product exactly as described.

United Kingdom on May 17, 2023

John Burnie: A fascinating review of the life of Grant and civil war America. There is a lot of detail relating to the years immediately following the Civil War and to Grant's presidency but the reading is deeply informative and well worth the effort. Grant's successes during the Civil War identify him as a great general. His sincere attempts at reconstruction during his presidency identify him as a great American. Grant's "Memoirs" are also highly readable and informative.
One of the puzzling aspects of the Civil War is how bravely poor southerners fought to defend a system that effectively impoverished them.

Australia on Aug 29, 2022

Robert ‘Bob’ Macespera: Ron Chernow is already stablished as the biographer of the XIX century America. His books on Washington, Hamilton, Grant, Rockefeller and Morgan can be read as the great chronic of politics and finance of the nation in the making. Some of those books are slightly better than others, yet they form an admirable, already essential, opus, and this precise one, the life of Ulysses Grant, ranks high in this little great canon.
General (later President) Grant is one of the great men of the XIX century America, or perhaps of recent history. The man was a celebrated soldier, an excellent writer, twice President of the USA and a figure made a model of perseverance, strong will and stoicism - one of the more recognizable recent authors of the said stoicism, Ryan Holiday, had Grant as one of his central examples in his celebrated (and multi-million seller) "The Obstacle is the Way". Ulysses Grant was also a good husband and doting father. And then an alcoholic and a poor (a very poor) business man, who in spite of his evident success, was always in the verge of bankruptcy.
All the previous is in the book, in a tale that runs through the best part of the XIX century and which has as...

United Kingdom on Jul 06, 2021

William C. Mahaney: ‘Grant’ by Ron Chernow

As someone steeped in military history, I thought I knew Grant, the general, until I made my way through Ron Chernow’s masterful biography of the historical figure that Walt Whitman characterized as ‘nothing heroic and yet the greatest hero.’ Yes, like many, I had heard of Grant’s early years, tumultuous struggle with alcohol and finances, and his generalship during the Civil War, sometimes described as overly brutal, but working through Chernow’s lengthy biography (all 1074 pages), I came to understand how Grant’s military mind worked. He may have been somewhat inept at sizing up folks (his father and brother-in-law for example) who were out to use him as a pivot to fraudulent activity but his compassion and empathy for the fallen and wounded come alive in uncovered documents. The man had an inscrutable face masking deep empathy. But Grant was skilled at sizing up officers (Sherman, Sheridan, for ex.) for military acumen, and their ability to understand his overall strategy to bring an end to an endless fratricide. More than this, he had to fight administrative minions in the army and administrators who continued to connive and bicker...

Canada on Feb 13, 2021

Jeff: U. S. Grant is an amazing story. Even how he came upon his name (which was latter joked to be Unconditional Surrender Grant) is an interesting story. At the dawn of the Civil War, Grant was broke, having failed in several business attempts. He had been dismissed from the army due to his drinking problems. Eight years later, after having led the Union forces to victory, Grant is the President of the United States. In this massive biography, Ron Chernow tells Grant’s story. Chernow challenges many of the presuppositions that are often held about Grant such as his military achievement was due to his superior numbers and that he, like his presidency, was corrupt. While acknowledging the truth of the Union superiority in numbers and the corruption of his administration, Chernow believes that Grant was a superior officer and he, himself, wasn’t corrupt. Grant’s greatest fault, according to Chernow, was his loyalty to friends. It appears Grant best action and clearest head was in the chaos of battle. In his private life he often overlooked the faults of his friends and was too trusting. In battle, he had no problems removing ineffective commanders.

Grant is certainly a study...

United States on May 24, 2019

Kenneth C. Mahieu: Having read Ron Chernow's biographies of Washington, Hamilton, and now Grant, I am committed to reading Chernow's next irrespective of who the subject is. "Grant" is terrific. It is an enjoyable book, very readable with amazing insights into the character and challenges that Grant faced throughout his life. It is not a love letter; it is balanced - critical, sympathetic and admiring. "Grant" is incredibly well-researched and yet does not bog the reader down with every little fact, piece of data, and anecdote that Chernow discovered. Rather he shares information to tell his story.

"Grant" is 959 pages, 43 chapters, four Parts. Some maps and photos; I wish there had been more. I found that 25 pages a day was just the right pace for me, and I looked forward each day to savoring the next 25. In my own mind I thought of the book as having five parts: the Early years, the Civil War years, the four years before his Presidency, the two terms as President, and his final years. Obviously, the second and fourth parts (Civil War, Presidency) form the biggest chunks of the story and together they make an interesting comment on Grant's life and accomplishments. Here is a man who made...

United States on Nov 25, 2017