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In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the "Trinity of Great American Leaders." But the battlefield commander-turned-commander-in-chief fell out of favor in the twentieth century. In American Ulysses, Ronald C. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the twenty-first.

Based on seven years of research with primary documents--some of them never examined by previous Grant scholars--this is destined to become the Grant biography of our time. White, a biographer exceptionally skilled at writing momentous history from the inside out, shows Grant to be a generous, curious, introspective man and leader--a willing delegator with a natural gift for managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers. His wife, Julia Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record, emerges in her own right as a spirited and influential partner.

Grant was not only a brilliant general but also a passionate defender of equal rights in post-Civil War America. After winning election to the White House in 1868, he used the power of the federal government to battle the Ku Klux Klan. He was the first president to state that the government's policy toward American Indians was immoral, and the first ex-president to embark on a world tour, and he cemented his reputation for courage by racing against death to complete his Personal Memoirs. Published by Mark Twain, it is widely considered to be the greatest autobiography by an American leader, but its place in Grant's life story has never been fully explored--until now.

One of those rare books that successfully recast our impression of an iconic historical figure, American Ulysses gives us a finely honed, three-dimensional portrait of Grant the man--husband, father, leader, writer--that should set the standard by which all future biographies of him will be measured.

A comprehensive and extremely readable biography of one of America’s greatest heroes. So much of his legacy has been lost or misrepresented; this book sets it right.

Starting with Grant’s first American ancestor, who left England in 1630, the book traces the family through their travels from Massachusetts to Connecticut, to Pennsylvania, and, finally, to Ohio. In 1822 Hiram Ulysses Grant would be born. But his father would always call him “my Ulysses.”

The book covers more of Grant’s childhood than most, even to identifying some of Grant’s friends. Also, how Hiram Ulysses’ name evolved. In 1839 he was accepted in West Point. A local draftsman would make him a trunk, riveting Grant’s initials, H.U.G., into the trunk with brass tacks. Knowing how the other cadets would plague him, the initials were reversed. Hiram Ulysses Grant became Ulysses Hiram Grant. But the paperwork sent in by his congressman was botched. Instead of Hiram, his middle name was given as Simpson. Since it would take approval by the secretary of war to have his named changed, Grant compromised by signing his name as U. S. Grant. It didn’t take long for his fellow cadets to come up with a name for the “S.” Grant would be Sam Grant from then on.

Another surprise was that Grant was quite the artist.

Horse eating

It’s personal and professional information like this that is the book’s strength. Through his romance with Julia Dent, who he would marry, his initial time in the army, his time away from it, his incredible career during the Civil War, his presidency, his world travels, and, finally, to his last years at home, every segment of Grant’s existence is brought to life. It’s an incredible book about an incredible man.