Grant or Blowback

Grant

Author: Jean Edward Smith

Ulysses S. Grant was the first four-star general in the history of the United States Army and the only president between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to serve eight consecutive years in the White House. As general in chief, Grant revolutionized modern warfare. Rather than capture enemy territory or march on Southern cities, he concentrated on engaging and defeating the Confederate armies in the field, and he pursued that strategy relentlessly. As president, he brought stability to the country after years of war and upheaval. He tried to carry out the policies of Abraham Lincoln, the man he admired above all others, and to a considerable degree he succeeded. Yet today, Grant is remembered as a brilliant general but a failed president.

In this comprehensive biography, Jean Edward Smith reconciles these conflicting assessments of Grant's life. He argues convincingly that Grant is greatly underrated as a president. Following the turmoil of Andrew Johnson's administration, Grant guided the nation through the post- Civil War era, overseeing Reconstruction of the South and enforcing the freedoms of new African-American citizens. His presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories, says Smith, for the same strength of character that made him successful on the battlefield also characterized his years in the White House.

Smith dispels the myth that Grant was a brutal general who willingly sacrificed his soldiers, pointing out that Grant's casualty ratio was consistently lower than Lee's. At the end of the war, Grant's generous terms to the Confederates at Appomattox foreshadowed his generosity to the South as president. But, as Smith notes, Grant alsohad his weaknesses. He was too trusting of his friends, some of whom schemed to profit through their association with him. Though Grant himself always acted honorably, his presidential administration was rocked by scandals.

"He was the steadfast center about and on which everything else turned," Philip Sheridan wrote, and others who served under Grant felt the same way. It was this aura of stability and integrity that allowed Grant as president to override a growing sectionalism and to navigate such national crises as the Panic of 1873 and the disputed Hayes-Tilden election of 1876.

At the end of his life, dying of cancer, Grant composed his memoirs, which are still regarded by historians as perhaps the finest military memoirs ever written. They sold phenomenally well, and Grant the failed businessman left his widow a fortune in royalties from sales of the book. His funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan closed the city, and behind his pallbearers, who included both Confederate and Union generals, marched thousands of veterans from both sides of the war.

Book Magazine

The historical perception of Ulysses S. Grant is that Grant led his country to victory during the Civil War by indiscriminately sacrificing his men in battle. The eighteenth president has been dismissed as an embarrassing failure whose administration was marked by utter corruption. Historian Smith, whose other books include a biography of United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, offers a radically different view of Grant, whom he considers a strong political leader. Smith disputes the notion that Grant was a butcher of his own men, and this book, which is ultimately concerned with Grant's presidency, praises the leader's two administrations and defends his treatment of blacks during Reconstruction. While Smith's biography may upset those scholars in lockstep with previous interpretations, it will undoubtedly enthrall its readers.
—Glenn Speer

(Excerpted Review)

Publishers Weekly

Grant's reputation as a general has steadily improved in the past quarter century, and the preceding decade has seen reevaluation of a presidency previously dismissed as an eight-year disaster. Smith, until now best known for his work in 20th-century U.S. foreign policy (George Bush's War), integrates Grant's career and achievements in what is by far the best comprehensive biography to date of a man who remains in enigma. A West Pointer who disliked the army enough to resign from it in 1854, Grant failed unobtrusively at every civilian enterprise he attempted. His return to arms in 1861 was marked by no spectacular triumph. Instead, from Shiloh through Vickburgh to Chattanooga, he established himself as the North's best general by a combination of flexibility, resilience and determination. Lee's unconditional surrender was accompanied by Grant's de facto pardon of the defeated army, and Smith persuasively interprets this as an early turning point of reconstruction, preventing Northern reprisals that might have left the nation permanently divided emotionally. Elected president in 1868, Grant above all sought reconciliation, yet made measured and effective use of the army to protect black rights in the south. Smith makes a strong case that the financial scandals that dogged Grant's second term reflected individual misfeasance rather than structural malaise-Grant was better at judging military subordinates than political advisers. His mediation of the Hayes-Tilden election in 1876 helped avert a national crisis. As a conqueror who was also a healer of war's wounds, Grant stands with no superiors and few equals, Smith forcefully argues. (Apr.) Forecast: The timing of this book is right, with Colin Powell as secretary of state and an election whose questions of black disenfranchisement and small electoral margin of victory are analogous to Hayes-Tilden. Add to that this book's comprehensiveness, rigor and readability, and it should do quite well. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Scholars consistently rank Ulysses Grant as the greatest Civil War general but one of the worst American presidents. This provocative biography attempts to reconcile Grant's contradictory reputations via the concept of "character." Marshall University political scientist Smith, who also authored the top-notch modern biography John Marshall: Definer of a Nation, effectively portrays Grant as a consistently decent, modest, and competent individual who experienced terrible luck in his civilian life but the opposite in public service. Grant never considered himself a warrior or a politician, but when presented with a mission he was tenacious. Lincoln recognized Grant's battlefield persistence and so did the public. Grant could be forceful, but he also could be too trusting and too needy of support, especially from his wife. A successful first term in the White House led to a less successful encore, though had Grant been a natural politician, it is likely he could have had a third term. The author effectively argues that Grant was not personally involved in his cronies' scandals. This is the best one-volume biography of Grant to date, and it may help elevate him among his fellow presidents. Highly recommended. William D. Pederson, Louisiana State University in Shreveport Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Preface	13
1	The Early Years	21
2	Mexico	34
3	Resignation	70
4	War	98
5	"Unconditional Surrender"	133
6	Shiloh	167
7	Vicksburg	206
8	Chattanooga	258
9	General in Chief	284
10	The Wilderness	313
11	Grant and Lee	340
12	Appomattox	369
13	Reconstruction	408
14	Let Us Have Peace	431
15	Grant in the White House	458
16	Diplomacy	491
17	Great White Father	516
18	Reconstruction Revisited	542
19	The Gilded Age	573
20	Taps	606
	Notes	629
	Bibliography	707
	Acknowledgments	747
	Index	749

New interesting textbook: World Religions Cookbook or Catering Solutions

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

Author: Chalmers Johnson

Now with a new and up-to-date Introduction by the author, the bestselling account of the effect of American global policies, hailed as “brilliant and iconoclastic” (Los Angeles Times)

The term “blowback,” invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia’s financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster.

In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.