Category: Book (non-fiction)  |  Rating :

eReview: Grant: A Biography

by William S. McFeely Hardcover / Published: 1981 / Publisher: W.W.Norton & Co., London / ISBN: 0393013723

Review by Molly Nash

McFeely, a history professor at Mt. Holyoke College, has written a thorough narrative of the life of Ulysses S. Grant in which he portrays the man as flawed, ambitious and often inept. Where others have illustrated Grant as a silent, thoughtful and loyal soldier/politician, McFeely sees Grant as desperately requiring public attention and even adulation. Where others find Grant's greatest failings as President in his misguided choices for his official family and have almost revered Grant's devotion to his wife and children, McFeely sees a man starved for affection and handicapped by a wife with blatant expectations for enrichment she felt due the savior of the Union. Though the book, McFeely, who has rich details on Grant's presidency, keeps presenting grudging admiration for Grant.

McFeely credits Grant, in the end, as being a writer. Throughout the book, constant references are made to Grant's gift of writing cogent orders, descriptive letters, and for a prodigious memory. He had a panoramic memory of battles which never varied in the telling over his lifetime. The chapter dealing with the writing of his memoirs is moving and elevates Grant from the poor president to hero status.

McFeely offers this quote from William Tecumseh Sherman on Grant:

"Grant's whole character was a mystery even to himself -- a combination of strength and weakness not paralleled by any of whom I have read in Ancient or Modern History."

While other books may be more informative about Grant's military career, this book is essential in formulating how to evaluate Grant in the larger picture of his whole public life. We may never solve the mystery of Grant's character, but this book gave me a whole new perspective on how a grateful nation found in him true American heroism. ---Molly Nash