Reviews
"This is the best study of Grant's military career since Bruce Catton's two volumes; and on many matters it exceeds Catton, as a consequence of the immense amount of Civil War scholarship during the past thirty years, which Simpson has thoroughly mastered. He has provided us with perhaps the best treatment of Union military command and strategy now in print." e" New Republic, "Brooks Simpson has crafted a superb military biography. His Ulysses S. Grant is exhaustively researched, impressively judicious, and eminently readable, giving us an objective and penetrating look at an important and enigmatic American . . . Simpson's book is destined to stand at our generation's definitive study of Grant. If your bookshelf has place for only one Grant biography, this is the one that should be there." '?Gordon C. Rhea, author of Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26'?June 3, 1864, "Why, given the existence of so many other studies about the man and his times, would anyone want to read this lengthy biography? Because it is skillfully written; because Grant's life is more fully realized in it than in previous one-volume studies; and because Simpson, who has benefited from decades of Civil War study, wears his wide-ranging scholarship lightly. Guaranteed to enlighten and please anyone who hasn't had enough of the Civil War and its central figures." 'e" Kirkus, "Serving as neither his subject's advocate nor his prosecutor, Arizona State University historian Simpson provides an eminently informed and finely balanced portrait of Ulysses S. Grant as man, husband, failed entrepreneur and shrewd, victorious general. Simpson ( Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861'e"1868) uses carefully excavated facts and anecdotes to reveal an individual far more complex than the caricature (drunken, barbarous in battle, corrupt when given opportunity) handed down to us by popular history. At the same time, Simpson does not gloss over Grant's shortcomings. Although a fan of the general's, Simpson is not in the business of writing apologetics, and therein lies his strength." 'e" Publishers Weekly (History Book Cub main selection), "Serving as neither his subject's advocate nor his prosecutor, Arizona State University historian Simpson provides an eminently informed and finely balanced portrait of Ulysses S. Grant as man, husband, failed entrepreneur and shrewd, victorious general. Simpson ( Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861e"1868) uses carefully excavated facts and anecdotes to reveal an individual far more complex than the caricature (drunken, barbarous in battle, corrupt when given opportunity) handed down to us by popular history. At the same time, Simpson does not gloss over Grant's shortcomings. Although a fan of the general's, Simpson is not in the business of writing apologetics, and therein lies his strength." e" Publishers Weekly (History Book Cub main selection), "This is the best study of Grant's military career since Bruce Catton's two volumes; and on many matters it exceeds Catton, as a consequence of the immense amount of Civil War scholarship during the past thirty years, which Simpson has thoroughly mastered. He has provided us with perhaps the best treatment of Union military command and strategy now in print." 'e" New Republic, "Why, given the existence of so many other studies about the man and his times, would anyone want to read this lengthy biography? Because it is skillfully written; because Grant's life is more fully realized in it than in previous one-volume studies; and because Simpson, who has benefited from decades of Civil War study, wears his wide-ranging scholarship lightly. Guaranteed to enlighten and please anyone who hasn't had enough of the Civil War and its central figures." e" Kirkus
