Finding the right ulysses s grant books isn't just about picking a biography off a shelf. It's about deciding which version of the man you want to meet. Most people think he was just a quiet guy who was good at war and bad at everything else. That's the old story.
The truth is way more messy. And honestly, way more interesting.
If you go looking for a book on Grant, you’re going to run into a massive wall of text. Historians have been obsessed with him for over 150 years. Some call him a "butcher" who just threw bodies at the problem until the South gave up. Others see him as the only person who actually understood how to save the United States.
The Best Way to Start Your Grant Journey
You’ve probably heard of Ron Chernow. He’s the guy who wrote the book that became Hamilton. His 2017 biography, Grant, is basically the gold standard right now. It's huge. I mean, it’s over 1,000 pages. But it’s surprisingly fast to read because he writes like he’s telling a story at a bar.
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Chernow does something really important: he tackles the "drunk" narrative head-on. For decades, Grant was dismissed as a functional alcoholic. Chernow argues that while Grant definitely struggled with booze, he wasn't the out-of-control lush the "Lost Cause" historians wanted you to believe.
Why You Might Want to Skip the Bio and Go to the Source
Wait, before you buy the Chernow book, listen to this.
Grant wrote his own book. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.
Most people assume memoirs by politicians are boring, self-serving junk. This one is different. It’s widely considered one of the best pieces of non-fiction ever written in America. Even Mark Twain, who published it, was blown away by Grant’s writing style.
He wrote it while he was literally dying of throat cancer. He was broke. He had been cheated out of his money by a Wall Street con artist. He finished the last page just days before he died.
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The prose is lean. It’s direct. It doesn't use five words when one will do. If you want to understand how a "failure" at 38 became the most powerful man in the world at 42, you have to read his own words.
Ulysses S Grant Books for the "Deep Divers"
Maybe you’ve already read the big ones. You know about Shiloh and Vicksburg. What’s next?
There’s a shift happening in how we look at Grant’s presidency. For a long time, historians said his time in the White House was just a series of scandals. But newer ulysses s grant books are looking at his civil rights record.
American Ulysses by Ronald C. White is a great example of this. White digs into the papers that older historians ignored. He shows a Grant who was obsessed with protecting formerly enslaved people from the KKK.
Then there’s U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh. This isn't just a biography. It’s a book about how we remember him. Why did he go from being a national hero (on par with Washington) to a punchline in history classes? It’s a wild look at how statues and textbooks can change a man's legacy long after he's gone.
The Specialist Picks
- Grant Moves South / Grant Takes Command by Bruce Catton. This is old-school. Catton is a legend for a reason. His writing has a rhythm that feels like a marching band.
- Crucible of Command by William C. Davis. This one is a dual biography of Grant and Robert E. Lee. It’s a fascinating comparison of two guys who couldn't have been more different if they tried.
- Grant’s Last Battle by Chris Mackowski. A much shorter read. It focuses entirely on that final year when he was racing to finish his memoirs before the cancer got him.
What Most People Get Wrong About These Books
If you pick up a book about Grant from the 1950s, you’re going to get a very different story than one from 2024.
The "Lost Cause" myth really did a number on his reputation. Southern-leaning historians spent decades trying to make Lee look like a saint and Grant look like a bumbling drunk who only won because he had more "stuff."
When you’re looking at ulysses s grant books, check the publication date. If it’s from before the 1980s, keep an eye out for that bias. William McFeely’s 1981 biography was a turning point. He wasn't exactly nice to Grant, but he started taking him seriously as a human being rather than a caricature.
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Honestly, the "drunk" thing is mostly boring now. What’s more interesting is how a guy who failed at selling firewood in St. Louis ended up out-thinking every general in the Confederacy.
How to Choose Your First Book
Don't feel like you have to read them all. You don't.
If you want the "movie version" in your head, go with Chernow.
If you want the "soldier’s truth," go with the Personal Memoirs.
If you want to understand why the South still feels the way it does about him, read Joan Waugh.
Grant was a guy who hated the sight of blood. He couldn't even stand to see a steak cooked rare. Yet, he led the bloodiest war in American history. That’s the kind of paradox that makes these books so good.
He wasn't a marble statue. He was a guy who loved his wife, got nervous in public, and had a weirdly good memory for maps.
Actionable Next Steps
To get started with ulysses s grant books, I recommend a specific path. Don't just dive into a 1,000-page tome if you haven't read history in a while.
- Step 1: Download a sample of the Personal Memoirs. You can actually get it for free on Project Gutenberg because it's in the public domain. Read the first 10 pages. If the voice clicks with you, keep going.
- Step 2: If the 19th-century language feels too dense, switch to Ron Chernow’s Grant on audiobook. It’s long, but it’s perfect for a commute.
- Step 3: Once you have the basics down, look for an "annotated" version of the Memoirs. Elizabeth Samet’s version is excellent because she explains all the 1800s slang and military terms that we don't use anymore.
- Step 4: Compare. Read a chapter in Chernow, then see how Grant described that same event in his memoirs. You’ll start to see where he left things out—and where he was being brutally honest.