• Books
  • Films & Media
  • The Public Historian
  • Blog
  • Texas
  • About
  • Students
  • Our/Stories
  • 15 Minute History

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner

Not Even Past

Great Books on Ulysses Grant

H. W. Brands recommends more reading on Ulysses S. Grant: memoirs, biographies, histories.

image

 

 

Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters (1990) 

 The greatest memoir by a former president, largely because it doesn’t touch his presidency. This is a history of the Civil War as told by the victor. Universally acclaimed as one of the best military memoirs ever written.

 

 

image

 

William S. McFeely. Grant (1981).

Still the starting point for studying Grant. McFeeley takes him seriously as a general, which everyone does, but also as president, which many historians before him did not. Nonetheless, McFeeley considers his presidency dismal. This biography employs more psychoanalysis, which was in vogue among historians at the time of the writing, than is common today.

 

image

 

 

Jean Edward Smith. Grant (2001).

Solid, respectful, comprehensive. Smith is less opinionated than McFeely and consequently less entertaining or less infuriating, depending on the reader’s point of view.

 

 

image

 

 

 

Charles B. Flood. Grant and Sherman (2005).

The subtitle is “The Friendship that Won the Civil War,” a characterization that is not far wrong. Provides further insight into the warrior mentality.

Posted August 31, 2012 More Books

The Public Historian

Native Literatures and Indigenous Peoples' Day: A Brief Historiography

October 14, 2019

More from The Public Historian

Books

The Drama of Celebrity by Sharon Marcus (2019)

Featured imageDecember 11, 2019

More Books

Digital History

Rising From the Ashes: The Oklahoma Eagle and its Long Road to Preservation

October 16, 2019

More from Digital History

Films & Media

Ayka (Dir: Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2018)

October 02, 2019

More from Films & Media

Texas

The Enslaved and the Blind: State Officials and Enslaved People in Austin, Texas

Featured imageDecember 04, 2019

More from Texas

Tags

19th century 20th Century African American History american history Asia Asia & Middle East book review Brazil British Empire China Civil War Cold War Colonialism cultural history digital history Early Modern Europe Europe film gender history History of Science immigration India Islam Latin America Latin American History Mexico Not Even Past Public History race religion Russia slavery Texas Texas History Texas History Day Transnational Twentieth Century History U.S. History United States US History USSR Womens History world history World War II
NOT EVEN PAST is produced by
The Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
We are supported by the College of Liberal Arts
And our Readers

Donate
Contact

All content © 2010-present NOT EVEN PAST and the authors, unless otherwise noted

Sign up to receive bi-weekly email updates

To help us prevent spam submissions, please type the text in the image below:

  • Books
  • Films & Media
  • The Public Historian
  • Blog
  • Texas