Indeed, some of Chernow’s thunder was stolen by last October’s American Ulysses, Ronald C. But where his Hamilton sprang freshly from the page in all his exotic, mercurial, nation-inventing dimension, Chernow’s Grant must remain the stolid, deeply shadowed figure of past biography. Still, this anvil of a book - at nearly a thousand pages of narrative - may prove a lumbering journey for casual consumers of American history, even though Chernow writes with grace and builds momentum. Upon passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, preventing the denial of voting rights based on race or color, Chernow writes: “For Grant this last amendment symbolized the logical culmination of everything he had fought for during the war.” Long before he found glory as Abraham Lincoln’s military savior, he had resigned from the Army amid accusations of drunkenness that dogged him throughout his career and presidency.Ĭhernow’s exhaustive research and nuanced assessments portray a Grant who struggled with alcohol at key points in his life, but who rose, superbly, to the challenges of war and executive leadership, shouldering the cause of civil rights in the late glow of Lincoln. Grant’s ultimate heroic status has been a hard-fought matter for historians. Or, as Walt Whitman described him, “nothing heroic … and yet the greatest hero.” Grant may defy the odds - just as the Union’s Civil War general and our 18th president overcame his humble origins, inward personality, the demons of drink and scandal to emerge an American paragon. It’s a safe bet that Ron Chernow’s monumental new biography, Grant (Penguin Press, 959 pp., ***½ out of four stars), won’t inspire a rapping, rocking Broadway juggernaut the way his earlier best seller, Alexander Hamilton, did.īut just as no one could have predicted Hamilton’s pop trajectory, Chernow’s deep dive on Ulysses S.

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Grant by Ron Chernow