This little book will inevitably be compared with Josiah Bunting's similarly short biography of one of the world's greatest military figures (Forecasts, June 14). The marriage of author and subject works well, although Korda (Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life, etc.) doesn't have much new to say about Lincoln's favorite general. That's not surprising, since everyone now writes about Grant in the shadow of Edmund Wilson, who gave new fame to Grant's memoirs, and William McFeely, who has written the best full biography to date. Even so, Korda freshly characterizes his man without psychologizing an unpromising subject. Grant was, after all, unyieldingly stolid and tight-lipped. While his qualities of directness and taciturnity made him a great general, they didn't yield up a fascinating man or a great president. Korda does about as good a job of bringing Grant to life as possible and handles all the essential set pieces-Grant as Mexican War officer, Civil War general, president and author of masterful memoirs on the eve of his death-with much skill. He's less perceptive than Bunting about Grant's presidency and occasionally puts unnecessary erudition on display, but on the whole this is a highly readable, accurate study of the man. (Oct. 1) FYI: This title launches the new Eminent Lives series, edited by James Atlas. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero
Narrated by Julian Elfer
Michael KordaUnabridged — 3 hours, 57 minutes
Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero
Narrated by Julian Elfer
Michael KordaUnabridged — 3 hours, 57 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
Ulysses S. Grant was the first officer since George Washington to become a four-star general in the United States Army, and the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. In this succinct and vivid biography, Michael Korda offers a dramatic reconsideration of the man, his life, and his presidency. Ulysses S. Grant is an evenhanded and stirring portrait of a flawed leader who nevertheless ably guided the United States through a pivotal juncture in its history.
Editorial Reviews
This lively and well-constructed short biography of Ulysses Grant follows the method of Plutarch, describing Grant's life from the standpoints of narrative and character. Narratively, Korda outlines as well as anyone ever has the odd structure of Grant's life: two towering peaks of heroism rising out of a muddy plain of perplexity and failure. The first peak was his extraordinary rise to greatness and victory in the Civil War, after years of obscurity in the Army and various failed ventures. The second, following a dismal presidency and an aimless post-presidency climaxed by financial scandal and ruin, saw Grant race the clock to write his memoirs (and provide for his wife) as he died slowly and painfully of throat cancer. Korda concisely summarizes Grant's military gifts, describes his deeply happy marriage with the "walleyed" daughter of a slaveholding Confederate, and documents his apparently congenitally bad judgment about anything having to do with money. This failing blighted both his public and private lives. It condemned him to failure before the war, disgraced his presidency, and bankrupted him afterward. Even so, he was a great man, and Korda's biography is an excellent introduction to an important American life.
Korda, Simon & Schuster's editor in chief, initiates a new series of short biographies by trying to compact a complicated man into a short compass. Grant earned a reputation as a general and later a writer for being direct, making his orders and his autobiography clear and compelling. His military philosophy was simple: find the enemy, hit him hard, and keep moving. Korda might have taken Grant's advice. He succeeds in keeping Grant's life moving along in a series of telling anecdotes that reveal Grant as a man of unprepossessing presence in peace, cool temperament in war, bad luck in business, innocence and prescience in politics, and good fortune in marriage. But Korda relies overly on William McFeely's Grant: A Biography (1981) to get the man, and he stumbles over facts, misreads context, and wastes words in an un-Grantlike manner. Still, Korda rightly recognizes that Grant's character was more complex than the usual stereotype of him as a butcher in battle and a bungler in politics, and Grant emerges as the greatest general of his day. Useful for major public and academic libraries, but McFeely's book remains the better buy. Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School-While these books are roughly the same length and both provide an easy read, they focus on different aspects of the subject. Bunting's goal is a re-examination of one of the most vilified presidents in American history. Though the author discusses the man's life before and after his presidency, he looks more closely at Grant's record and discovers more in it than has generally been credited. At the end, it must be said that Grant's intentions and character are more praiseworthy than his accomplishments, but one cannot gainsay the successes that he oversaw in foreign policy and in his determined enforcement of civil rights for freedmen in the South. Korda's volume is interested in investigating the psychology of one of the great Americans of the 19th century. He examines Grant's successes and failures and shows the parts of his character that are evident in both. In doing so, he produces a gripping study of the man, operating successfully under the stresses of war, enduring failure in the stresses of peace, and coping with his fatal cancer. It is a broad, sweeping view of the man's life and naturally tends to focus more on his military than on his political career. Neither book tells the whole story; together, though, they provide an admirable introduction to one of the great men of American history.-Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Apart from Ulysses and Julia, a vast library of biographies and historical studies devoted to the great Civil War general. To them comes this slender volume, inaugurating James Atlas's Eminent Lives series, by noted memoirist/novelist/editor/bon vivant Korda (Horse People, 2003, etc.). Korda adds nothing whatever to the scholarship, but he has an evident and immediate sympathy for his subject, who, of course, is remembered just as much for his persistent alcoholism as for his victories at places like Vicksburg and Fort Donelson, just as much for the scandals that marred his presidency as for the efforts he made to effect the Reconstruction. Korda praises Grant's virtues-"his reserve, his quiet determination, his courage in the face of adversity," all of which came into play when the general was dying of cancer and racing against the clock to finish his famed memoirs, now much in the news as a contrast to those of Bill Clinton. He also offers a couple of wrinkles that might give other students of Grant pause: Korda sees Grant as, well, a touchy fellow, where other biographers have been amazed at the thickness of his hide; Korda breezily hints that Grant prized the presidency because he got to eat turkey at the White House every day, where other biographers pass that matter by. Korda is a charming and learned writer, as always. But, as wide-ranging as his cultural references are, he's shaky on certain facts: Beyonce is not a teenager; the term "hooker" is not an invention of the Civil War; and so forth. Such errors can undermine his authority, which is tenuous in the matter of Grant in the first place, especially now that so many historians have turned theirattention to the general. Inconsequential but pleasant. For meatier treatments, see Jean Edward Smith's Grant (2001) and, more recently, Josiah Bunting's brief life of the general and president (p. 612).
Michael Korda has delivered a jewel of a short life of Ulysses S. Grant, a general deadly on the battlefield and unprepossessing off it. As a biographer Korda is Grant-like himself: unambiguous, decisive, clear. The book is a joy to read.” — Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove
“In this compact, vivid biography of the Eisenhower of the American Civil War, Michael Korda distills Grant’s concentrated essence. His portraiture is incisive, his battle scenes superb.” — Richard Rhodes, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award for The Making of the Atom Bomb
“Those whose only perception of Ulysses S. Grant is that of an all-but-forgotten Civil War general, an inept president, and a failed businessman would do well to read Michael Korda’s short but illuminating biography. Korda’s insightful reassessment of this ‘unlikely hero’ will change your view. He concludes that a greater understanding of how Grant confronted the watershed crises of his era has major relevance today as America wrestles with equally far-reaching military and political issues of a scope and importance not unlike those of the mid-nineteenth century.” — Henry Kissinger
"Ulysses S. Grant was America’s very own anti-Napoleon: a general who hated war, a politician who served without charisma, a man of humility who eschewed myths about himself. Korda’s book is a telling of Grant’s life that is true to the thought and style of the subject: simple, clear, and deeply original. The sections comparing Grant to Ike or the recounting of the creation of Grant’s bestselling memoirs are worth the price of the book." — Steven Englund, author of Napoleon, A Political Life
“I think you’ve got Grant just right: tender-hearted and remorseless, unpromising at the start, but then a natural commander, shy and vain, the archetypal little man achieving giant stature. Your description of him at the end is terrific!” — Justin D. Kaplan Winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
“Korda’s volume is interested in investigating the psychology of one of the great Americans of the 19th century. He examines Grant’s successes and failures and shows the parts of his character that are evident in both. In doing so, he produces a gripping study of the man, operating successfully under the stresses of war, enduring failure in the stresses of peace, and coping with his fatal cancer. It is a broad, sweeping view of the man’s life...an admirable introduction to one of the great men of American history.” — School Library Journal
“Lively and well-constructed. . . . An excellent introduction to an important American life.” — Foreign Affairs
“Make[s] Grant, for all his taciturnity and shyness, a fascinating and major historical player.” — Booklist
“Korda does about as good a job of bringing Grant to life as possible and handles all the essential set pieces—Grant as Mexican War officer, Civil War general, president and author of masterful memoirs on the eve of his death—with much skill.” — Publishers Weekly
"Ulysses S. Grant was America’s very own anti-Napoleon: a general who hated war, a politician who served without charisma, a man of humility who eschewed myths about himself. Korda’s book is a telling of Grant’s life that is true to the thought and style of the subject: simple, clear, and deeply original. The sections comparing Grant to Ike or the recounting of the creation of Grant’s bestselling memoirs are worth the price of the book."
I think you’ve got Grant just right: tender-hearted and remorseless, unpromising at the start, but then a natural commander, shy and vain, the archetypal little man achieving giant stature. Your description of him at the end is terrific!
Michael Korda has delivered a jewel of a short life of Ulysses S. Grant, a general deadly on the battlefield and unprepossessing off it. As a biographer Korda is Grant-like himself: unambiguous, decisive, clear. The book is a joy to read.
Those whose only perception of Ulysses S. Grant is that of an all-but-forgotten Civil War general, an inept president, and a failed businessman would do well to read Michael Korda’s short but illuminating biography. Korda’s insightful reassessment of this ‘unlikely hero’ will change your view. He concludes that a greater understanding of how Grant confronted the watershed crises of his era has major relevance today as America wrestles with equally far-reaching military and political issues of a scope and importance not unlike those of the mid-nineteenth century.
In this compact, vivid biography of the Eisenhower of the American Civil War, Michael Korda distills Grant’s concentrated essence. His portraiture is incisive, his battle scenes superb.
Make[s] Grant, for all his taciturnity and shyness, a fascinating and major historical player.
Make[s] Grant, for all his taciturnity and shyness, a fascinating and major historical player.
I think you’ve got Grant just right: tender-hearted and remorseless, unpromising at the start, but then a natural commander, shy and vain, the archetypal little man achieving giant stature. Your description of him at the end is terrific!
I think you’ve got Grant just right: tender-hearted and remorseless, unpromising at the start, but then a natural commander, shy and vain, the archetypal little man achieving giant stature. Your description of him at the end is terrific!
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176400304 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 06/30/2020 |
| Series: | Eminent Lives: The Presidents |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Ulysses S. Grant
The Unlikely HeroChapter One
In the summer of 2003 Ulysses S. Grant made news all across the country that he had, in his lifetime, done so much to reunite: Some of his descendants, a good part of the more serious press, and the Grant Monument Association objected strongly to pop diva Beyoncé Knowles, accompanied by a "troupe of barely clad dancers," using his tomb in New York City's Riverside Park as the background for a raucous, "lascivious," nationally televised July Fourth concert.
Beyoncé and her fans hardly seemed aware of who Grant was, or why such a fuss should be made about the presence of loud music, suggestive dancing, partial nudity, and a huge, boisterous crowd in front of his tomb, which, as the New York Times pointed out, had once been a bigger tourist attraction than the Statue of Liberty. In fact, except for a few members of the Grant family who had been trying for years to get the bodies of General Grant and his wife, Julia, removed from the tomb on the grounds that it had been allowed to fall into a disgraceful state of repair and decay, the level of public indignation was low. The Times even felt compelled to comment rather sniffily that the general was "no longer the immensely famous figure he once was." Grant's great-grandson Chapman Foster Grant, fifty-eight, however, took a different view of Beyoncé's concert, commenting, "Who knows? If the old guy were alive, he might have liked it."
Knowing as much as we do about the general's relationship with Mrs. Grant -- like President Lincoln, whom he much admired, Grant was notoriously devoted to a wife who felt herself and her family to be vastly socially superior to his and was not shy about letting her opinion on the subject be known; and, like Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Grant's physical charms, such as they may have been, were lost on everybody but her dutiful husband -- it seems unlikely that Grant would have allowed himself to appreciate Beyoncé's presence at his tomb. Mrs. Grant, it was generally felt, kept her husband on a pretty tight leash when it came to pretty girls, barely clothed or not.
As for Grant himself, while he had his problems with liquor -- his reputation as a drinker is perhaps the one thing that most Americans still remember about him, that and the fact that his portrait, with a glum, seedy, withdrawn, and slightly guilty expression, like that of a man with a bad hangover, is on the fifty-dollar bill -- no allegation of any sexual indiscretion blots his record. He reminds one, in fact, of Byron's famous lines about George III:
He had that household virtue, most uncommon, Of constancy to a bad, ugly woman.
Grant not only led a blameless domestic life, he was the very reverse of flamboyant. Softspoken, given to long silences, taciturn, easily hurt and embarrassed, he was the most unlikely of military heroes. He did not, like Gen. Ambrose Burnside, for example, who was so soundly defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg, lend his name to a style of swashbuckling full sidewhiskers -- "sideburns," as they came to be known after him. Nor did he lend his name, as the unfortunate Gen. Joseph Hooker (who succeeded Burnside and was defeated by Lee at Chancellorsville) was thought to have done, to label the prostitutes who were said to surround his headquarters, so that even today they are still known as "hookers" by people who have never heard of the general himself. Grant aimed to be the most ordinary appearing and self-effacing of men, and to a very large extent he succeeded.
The fact that Beyoncé is black, as was much of the audience of thousands gathered to listen to her concert, might have shocked the general rather less than her near nudity or the "lascivious choreography" reported by the Times. Grant probably did more than anyone except Lincoln to destroy the institution of slavery in North America, but, like Lincoln, he shared the social attitude toward Negroes of his own race and his time. However, his innate good manners, natural courtesy, and a certain broad-minded tolerance always marked his behavior toward them. It was typical of him that while very few other generals in that age would have had a Native American officer on their staffs, Grant did, and as president he deplored the way in which government agents exploited the Indians, seeming to have felt that Custer got what was coming to him at the Little Big Horn.
Grant's personal and professional opinion of Custer had always been low, and although he made more than his share of political and financial mistakes in the White House and afterward, and his judgment of character when it came to civilians was notoriously optimistic, his judgment of generalship was invariably ruthlessly objective and on target. Grant was unsure about a lot of things, but he knew a flashy, incompetent, and reckless general when he saw one, so Custer's defeat at the hands of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse did not surprise or shock him, unlike the rest of the United States.
What he would have made of the Grant family's long struggle to extricate him and Mrs. Grant from Grant's Tomb as it fell into disrepair and decay and move them elsewhere is hard to say. One of the reasons the campaign failed was the question of where to put the Grants if they were removed from their tomb in New York City. With that mournful failure of judgment that was apt to come over Grant off the battlefield, he and Mrs. Grant chose New York City for their resting place, in part out of a dislike for Washington, D.C. -- Grant's two terms as president had not produced in either of them any affection for Washington society, nor, in the end, was there much affection in Washington for them -- while Galena, Illinois, which seemed too provincial a backwater in which to bury such a great man, had even fewer happy memories for the Grants than did Washington ...
Ulysses S. GrantThe Unlikely Hero. Copyright © by Michael Korda. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Videos
