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5 comments about Ulysses S. Grant: The American Presidents Series.

1. Ulysses S. Grant was a simple man (a "guy's guy" if you will) whose quiet, dignified leadership and composure helped the nation through some of the worst days of the Civil War. It seems odd really to think of a military commander (or a military man of any rank or position) to possess the qualities that Grant did. Humble. Straightforward. Sensitive. And yet he was all these things.
   
   He had to contend with the same horrors that Lincoln had to face: the most disruptive and bloody years the nation ever suffered through. And following the war (rather than accept retirement after having served) he accepted a call to the presidency, and with it, the challenges of Reconstruction. The simple statement, "Let us have peace," still echo down as a strong reminder to us, to those who never had the chance to meet him... Grant really was the right person for the times in which he passed.
   
   The author, Josiah Bunting III, deserves credit and our thanks for having written a very good book. It's language is engaging. As a reader, I never thought I'd be able to sit through pages of descriptive narration of battles, army movements and strategy. It was never really something I could stomach in any of my history classes, and yet Mr. Bunting had me at every move. I was fascinated and along for every moment of the ride.
   
   One can't help but be struck with the haunting realization that the Civil War was never a thing written in stone: it was avoidable. As with any other historical moment, it was something that came, something that followed the actions of other leaders (Franklin Pierce, Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan all spring to mind) who couldn't see that they were walking down a dangerous path. And yet, the war also lifted some men into national prominence: men of great character... men like U. S. Grant.



2. The short volumes in the American Presidents series offer an outstanding way for readers to get reacquainted with American history and with our Nation's leaders. Each volume is written by a scholar who brings his or her own perspective to the subject, focusing on the factors that make the president in question worth knowing and remembering. In this volume of the series, Josiah Bunting III offers an admirable and challenging portrait of U.S. Grant (1822 -- 1885) who served as the eighteenth president of the United States (1869 -- 1877). Bunting is a former army officer who served as the superintendant of the Virginia Military Institute for many years. He offers a reappraisal of the Grant presidency in this volume, in company with some other contemporary scholarly reassessments.
   
   As Bunting emphasizes, Grant has suffered from cliches both as General and as President. He is frequently castigated as a "drunk" (Grant did indeed have problems with alcohol early in his career) and as a "butcher", in spite of the extraordinary strategic skill he displayed in the Vicksburg campaign, at Fort Donelson, in crossing the James River en route to Petersburg, and elsewhere (and in spite of the relatively low casualty rates, overall, of the armies under his command). In his presidency, Grant is often found at the bottome of the various rankings, primarily due to the corruption that ensued during his administration.
   
   Bunting's book offers a brief portrait of Grant's early life and a good brief summary of his accomplishments during the Civil War. He also offers a brisk account of Grant's activities during the four years between Appomattox and Grant's own election to the presidency, focusing on his increasingly strained relationship with Andrew Johnson and his eventual rejection of Johnson's lenient policy of Reconstruction. This pivotal period of Grant's career is frequently overlooked.
   
   But the focus of the book is on Grant's presidency. Bunting properly points out that with the exception of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, no person faced greater challenges than did Grant in assuming the executive office. The country was seriously divided over Reconstruction, with the seemingly intractable goals of restoring the Union on the one hand and protecting the rights of African Americans on the other hand. Bunting praises Grant for the efforts he made to protect the rights of the freed people. With substantial justification, Bunting says that Grant's efforts were the strongest made by an American president until the mid-20th Century. Bunting also praises Grant for pursuing a relatively humane policy towards the Indians, for his courageous veto of inflationary paper money legislation in 1874, and for his calm and principled stance during the Hayes-Tilden controversy in the presidential election of 1876.
   
   Bunting does not overlook Grant's deficiencies as president, but I think he tends to downplay them. He acknowledges a substantial degree of moral obtuseness in Grant, if not personal culpability, in the manner in which the President responded to the scandals which plagued his administration. Grant showed a high degree of cronyism while in office and a tendency, derived from his success as a general, to be peremptory in has actions and judgments. On several occasions, Grant's policies and inactions led to economic difficulties, including the severe depression of 1873. Even in the area of Reconstruction and civil rights, Grant frequently compromised his efforts due to political considerations. And he was aware that the military presence in the South and the agressive Federal efforts to protect the rights of the freed people would need to end, due to lack of support in the nation, if not during his administration, then in the administration of his successor.
   
   Grant remained a revered figure during his lifetime. He probably could have been elected to a third term in 1876, had he wished, and he narrowly missed a renomination for president in 1880. Grant's Memoirs of his Civil War and Mexican War experiences, which he wrote towards the end of his life, is a classic of American literature.
   
   I think historians will debate the extent to which Bunting's work, and similar studies, serve to rehabilitate the presidency of Grant. But clearly, Bunting offers a fresh and thoughtful approach which will serve to modify the stereotypes that many informed Americans carry about him. Bunting's book offers a good introduction to a great, if enigmatic, American and to his difficult presidency.
   
   Robin Friedman



3. While Bunting does a creditable job of presenting an accurate chronology of Grant's career, the concise format leaves minimal opportunity to examine motivations and nuance of the many facets of the general and president. Those interested in Grant and the Civil War /post-war reconstruction will find this a worthy starting point only - for a more insightful examination the next step would be Grant's autobiography itself. Do not choose this text for coverage of the Civil War engagements to any extent. Bunting has delivered a well-written but terse overview of an impossibly complex character and time in American history.



4. Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but there's a story there, as summarized in this work) was to ascend to the highest ranks in the hearts of his countrymen--from commanding general of the Union forces to President of the United States.
   
   His rise to such positions seemed most unlikely to those who knew him in the years after the Mexican War. He grew up in Ohio and, through happenstance, ended up at West Point. He completed his studies, ranking in the middle of the pack in his class. He was noteworthy for his skills as a horseman and for his mathematical ability. His performance in the Mexican War was very strong. In the process of his tour of duty, he served under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, and learned considerably about what makes a general. Thereafter, he had a series of postings leaving him isolated and sometimes "on the bottle," where he developed a reputation as a drunk.
   
   There follows the familiar story of his departure from the army, failed effort after failed effort at creating a solid economic grounding h=for his family. As the Civil War opened, while he was working in the family store in Galena, Illinois, he served as an officer as civilian military units were formed.
   
   After that, his meteoric rise in the Army--from regiment command to commanding general of all Union forces. In between, he displayed the ability to win battles that often led other generals to retreat. In the process, Americans had come to respect him as the war closed.
   
   The book chronicles his disagreements with Andrew Johnson's policies after Lincoln's assassination. Then, in 1868, Grant was nominated by the Republicans for president. This book takes a hard look at his presidency--the good, the bad, and the ugly. There were some important contributions--despite faltering, he did try to support the newly won rights of former slaves; he also supported humane treatment of Indians (even against the wishes of his top lieutenants--William Sherman and Phil Sheridan). But his economic policy contributed to the Panic that engulfed his second administration. His blind eye toward corruption of some of his colleagues does him no honor in history. There were also some foreign policy successes, to round out the picture.
   
   And, his final years, in which he courageously tried to provide for his families' economic security.
   
   All in all, another good entry in this series of brief biographies (155 pages of text, with a useful chronology following the text). As always, if one wishes a quick and accessible view of this American president, this book will do nicely. And, even though this book is brief, the author pouts Grant's performance as president in a nice context.



5. Interestingly, the only five post-Lincoln US Presidents who have concerned themselves with Civil Rights (Grant, Harding, Truman, LBJ and Nixon) have ended their Presidencies rated by journalists and historians at the bottom of the list of Presidential greatness. To be sure, it wasn't civil rights that doomed their reputation, it was supposedly corruption (Grant, Harding, Truman and Nixon) or an unpopular war (Truman, LBJ and Nixon), but the corruption charges do not compare with the abuse of the FBI and the IRS by FDR and JFK, let alone the sale of military secrets and pardons by Clinton, and none of those Presidents seem likely to be tainted. And Truman's war had a happy ending while Vietnam was not the fault of either LBJ or Nixon. So their bad reps are something of a mystery.
   
   Only slowly have they recovered their reputations. First it was Harry Truman who leaped from the lowest Gallup poll ratings in history to the status of "Near Great", helped by his oral histories and a Broadway show. Ever since Frank Scaturro's groundbreaking work, President Grant Reconsidered, Ulysses S. Grant has seemed next in line for promotion.
   
   Josiah Bunting's inclusion in Arthur Schlesinger's American President series should be welcomed as the establishment's acceptance of a more favorable view of President Grant. Arthur Schlesinger, whose "greatness list" perpetuated the sour rankings of the civil rights Presidents for many years, was the general editor of the American Presidents Series and he has generally chosen establishment, orthodox, mildly leftist authors for the series who can be counted on to say nothing that will challenge the established order or, indeed, have anything novel or interesting to say.
   
   That Schlesinger chose Josiah Bunting, the highly respected general and scholar, is a different matter. Gen. Bunting has written a concise and highly recommended defense of Ulysses Grant, building on Frank Scaturro's work and humanizing Grant in the process. There are the occasional typos, but that is to be expected in American publishing these days. What Bunting does is show just how far thinking and compassionate Grant was with enlightened views toward international affairs, civil rights, civil service, the claims of native Americans and economic matters. He also shows that the scandals were less his Administration's fault than they were those of Congress.
   
   I fault him only on his focus. Only sixty pages out of less than 160 are devoted to his Presidency and fifteen of them to Grant's first inauguration, his cabinet choices and the Black Friday gold panic. Only six pages are devoted to the second administration (although, to be fair, some of Grant's actions from 1873 to 1877 are covered in thematic chapters devoted to subjects such as Reconstruction and Indian Affairs). The Colfax Massacre and Grant's willingness to prosecute the murderers right up to the Supreme Court don't get a mention.
   
   The result is that this is a first rate introductory biography of Ulysses Grant, highly recommended to anyone who is interested in, but ignorant of, the man, but as a history of the Grant Administration, we will have to wait for the second volume of Brooks Simpson's biography of Grant.

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5 comments about Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait Of Her Final Days.

1. Edward Klein needs to find a new family to write recycled books about. After peddling such ghastly books as "The Kennedy Curse" and "Just Jackie," Klein engages in literary graverobbing with the putrid "Farewell Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days."

   His primary focus is the final illness and death of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, of non-lymphoma cancer that seemed easily treatable. By this time, Ms. Onassis had transcended her tabloid-speckled former lives and had a good job, a man she loved, and grandchildren she adored. But when her cancer spread, Onassis tried to die with the illusion of dignity she had maintained in her life.

   Reading "Farewell Jackie" is a bit like watching someone break open a grave to frisk the bones of the dead. Padding the story of Jackie's illness and death are stories of her earlier life -- primarily her second marriage, and various love affairs she had (one of which has been denied by the man involved). Dirt-dishing, anyone?

   Jackie Kennedy Onassis is portrayed as downright saintly in this book; Klein glosses over the hypocrises and flaws in her personality, such as being "religious" yet ignoring tenets of that religion. Even the volatile nature of her relationship with her second husband. Oddly enough, this adoration doesn't extend far enough, especially at the end. Any semblance of dignity is shredded when Klein goes into grotesque detail about Onassis's final mental and physical deterioration.

   What's more, Klein's writing is deplorable. He transcribes private conversations and moments when Onassis was alone -- all obviously faked. Not to mention that Klein is in desperate need of an editor for this book's many errors. On one page, Klein informs us, "Jackie a wreck." Verbs? We don't need no stinkin' verbs.

   Farewell, Jackie. Too bad Klein had to write this book and peddle it as a memorial volume for you. "Farewell Jackie," thankfully, is clearly destined to sink into the mire of obsequious, poorly-written Kennedy books.




2. I think that this book was a well writen portrail of Jackie's final days, with a moderate vocabulary it well conveys the beliefs of the author



3. I enjoy reading books about the Kennedys and Jackie Onassis, but this book, which was supposed to give a chronicle of sorts of the last 10-11 years of Jackie's life, did not do a very good job of that. It was a cut-and-paste biography from previous books and interviews. I didn't learn anything new from this book, and that's the biggest disappointment. It will be a nice addition to my extensive library, but it won't be the first one I pull off the shelf for anyone who wants a good narrative of her life and on who Jackie really was. This is an "okay to read if you're lonely" kind of book.



4. The author was once a friend of Jackie's, until he had the audacity to break one of her cardinal rules...writing an article on her for Vanity Fair in 1989. Like many people, he has cashed in quite nicely on noteriety of the Kennedy's, and Jackie in particular. Hence, Jackie banished Klien from her circle as she did with many people that she felt breached her privacy. You can hardly consider Klien a true insider, he is more like a vulture picking at scraps already chewed over by many, many other gossip columnists, writers, and fans like myself.
   This book is really just a re-hashing of many things that have already been published and little of it is new. I must add that most of the details in this book on her illness and treatment h were widely published in tabloids like "Enquirer" and "Star" when she died 10 years ago. The chapters on Jackie's private moments during the last months of her life-when she is in church, in the doctor's office, with her children, and even on her deathbed are hard to believe, if only because we know Jackie would not have allowed Klien within a block of her presence. Most of his sources for these are a "secret" and I really have to wonder if anyone that Mrs Onassis truly considered a friend would speak with Mr. Klien.
   
   This book, I hate to admit, is a guilty pleasure but one that I regret indulging in, knowing disgusted the subject would have been with it.



5. My husband claims that I've never met a book I didn't like. But two Edward Klein books that I've recently read have to be the exceptions. The Kennedy Curse was bad enough, but Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days is a true dog.
   
   Klein gives us the details of the diagnosis of Jackie's fatal illness and follows through to her death. In between, he regales us with short stories about her childhood, her lovers, her husbands, her children, her friends and her job. Jackie was fiercely protective of her privacy, and one thing that she demanded of her friends was complete loyalty. Edward Klein used to be a friend, until he wrote an article about her. After that, she cut him off completely. As a result, we're not really getting his "inside" story, but the story of dozens and dozens of Jackie's "anonymous" friends. I question how many would willingly provide him with intimate details of Jackie's deathbed scene (one that he called "her masterpiece").
   
   Farewell, Jackie isn't much of a book. Weighing in about just a little over 200 pages, the chapters are short, the pages are small, and there are often two or three blank pages between each chapter. I read Farewell in a little over two hours, and I'm not a speed reader. At least with The Kennedy Curse, Klein provided us with some interesting information about the little-known Kennedy-Fitzgerald patriarchs. Unfortunately, Farewell, Jackie has little to redeem it. I think Klein has milked this cash cow (the Kennedy's) to the extent that the cow has run dry. It's time for him to find some new material.