Grant

Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant, titled simply Grant, was published in 2017 by Penguin Press. A biographer specializing in United States history, Chernow wrote Grant in order to correct what he perceives as misconceptions about Grant’s life, especially his presidency. In particular, Chernow argues that Grant was a more pivotal figure when it came to African American rights than has usually been appreciated. Also, Chernow focuses on Grant’s alcoholism, seeing Grant’s struggle with alcohol as inspirational rather than a fatal flaw.

This study guide refers to the 2018 Penguin Books edition.

Summary

The biography of Ulysses S. Grant starts in rural Ohio, where Grant is born to a family with a Methodist and abolitionist background. His father Jesse enlists him in the military academy of West Point without Grant’s knowledge or consent. There, Grant was a student who talked back to superiors, but one who also “developed a reputation for a fearless sense of fair play” (22). Although Grant aspired to be a professor of mathematics, he ended up pursuing a career in the military, serving as an officer in the Mexican-American War where he had firsthand experience as part of an occupying army. Still, he had time for a personal life and married Julia Dent, the daughter of a family of enslavers from Missouri.