| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Grant. By Jean Edward Smith. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. 781 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-684-84926-7.)

In recent years, Ulysses S. Grant has continued to attract numerous biographers and historians. Starting with the complete life by William S. McFeely in 1981, studies have proliferated. Comparisons of the general's strategy with that of Robert E. Lee, considerations of his involvement in Reconstruction, and other works have appeared. Yet Jean Edward Smith's present volume, simply entitled Grant, will probably remain the standard work for years to come. Beautifully written, well researched, and challenging to read, it represents biography at its best. 1

Smith's manifest liking for his subject is obvious. Unlike many others, he stresses the continuity of Grant's achievements in war and in peace. Picturing his hero as a modest though determined individual, he emphasizes Grant's debt to Zachary Taylor. That general became his role model, impressing him with his informality and his generous treatment of defeated enemies. While the Mexican War earned the West Point second lieutenant promotions, his subsequent assignment to California was less advantageous. Boredom, longing for his wife and family, and business failures caused him to resign his commission in 1854. According to the author, how much his occasional drunkenness contributed to this decision is problematical. While admitting that Grant easily became inebriated, Smith maintains that he rarely drank anything at all. Stressing his subject's poverty and business failures during the period between his resignation and the Civil War, he nevertheless never loses sight of Grant's unvarying honesty. . . .

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