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Title: Grant: A Biography by William S. McFeely ISBN: 0-393-32394-3 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An objective look at Grant--with all his many faces
Comment: William S. McFeely's book Grant attempts to be an objective look at the life of one of the most well-known of US generals. It is a good account, full of details into Grant's life and quick to dispel many of the popular myths (both positive and negative) which have been spread about the general. The treatment of the Civil War does not take up the majority of the work, but instead comprises a part of the career of a man who went from tanner to army man to President to writer, with various stints as a failed businessman and bored peacetime army officer in between.
In his quest for objectivity, I think McFeely has overstepped his bounds just a bit. He greatly downplays Lincoln's affection for Grant, claiming that the President was never quite sure if he could trust the general. Early on, this may have been true, but the fact is that Lincoln many times defended Grant when rumors came to his ear, saying he liked Grant because "he fights." Also, McFeely calls Grant's wilderness campaign a "hideous disaster," and insinuates that Grant did not care much about the colossal loss of life at Cold Harbor. The overwhelming fact about the Wilderness Campaign is that it was, indeed, very costly in terms of human life. Still, Grant got things done. He defeated Lee--something McClellan and the other commanding officers could not do. Grant did what he had to do, terrible though it was.
Still, these are matters of opinion, and the book remains a wonderful treatment of Grant. One of the things I like most is that is gives equal treatment to all aspects of Grant's life, not just the Civil War. I learned a great deal about the Grant administration, which is usually regarded as one of the most corrupt in our nation's history. That may be true, but McFeely convincingly argues that not all of it was Grant's fault.
Overall, this is a great work on Grant. It has its flaws, but it still remains an adequate overview of this man's life, and should provide a good companion to Grant's personal memoirs. I would recommend this book to anyone studying the Civil War, as it gives a great account of Grant's part, though it lacks details (which can be obtained in other studies of the War itself). This would be a great addition to any Civil War library, as well as a
Rating: 4
Summary: An outstanding work--especially on the post-Civil War era.
Comment: As the author of a book on the Civil War and another on the Reconstruction era, I highly recommend McFeely's biography of Grant. McFeely is not only a fine historian, he is a first-rate writer, offering sharp portraits of Grant and the figures who surrounded him; clear, insightful expositions on important issues; and a compelling narrative. The great strength of this work is its coverage of Grant's rise to the presidency and his two terms in the White House--one of the finest portraits of this dramatic, pivotal era, filled with everything from Indian wars to staggering political corruption to the first great struggle over civil rights. The book is weaker on Grant's military career during the Civil War; as McFeely draws out information about the general's personal life, he seems to neglect both the details and the grand scale of Grant's achievements on the battlefield. All told, however, this remains a classic biography--and a pleasure to read.
--T.J. Stiles, author of IN THEIR OWN WORDS: ROBBER BARONS AND RADICALS
Rating: 1
Summary: Profoundly Overrated
Comment: This is one seriously irritating book. There may be relatively few factual errors (at least, compared to Geoffrey Perret's work on Grant, a masterpiece of unintentional humor,) but McFeely's work is riddled with what I can only believe are deliberately insulting mischaracterizations and misrepresentations, tiresomely pretentious writing, and amateur psychoanalyzing of the most obnoxious sort. McFeely is particularly fond of quoting the words of Grant or his wife on some matter or another, and then proclaiming that--no matter how clear their meaning may have been to us poor dumb non-historians--what they were REALLY saying and thinking was something else altogether. If there is anything I can't abide, it's a biographer who persists in reading a subject's mind and putting words into his or her mouth and thoughts into his or her head that were never said and never thought. McFeely not only obviously believes he is much smarter than Grant (hah!) but more percipient than his readership, as well.
If this book is worthy of a Pulitzer, then I trust my next grocery shopping list will earn me a Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Title: How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War by Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, Jerry A. Vanderlinde ISBN: 0252062108 Publisher: University of Illinois Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War by Eric Foner ISBN: 0195094972 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War by Catherine Clinton, Nina Silber ISBN: 0195080343 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant (Modern Library War) by Ulysses S. Grant, Geoffrey Perret ISBN: 0375752285 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans L. Trefousse ISBN: 0393317420 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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