Ron Chernow: Ulysses S. Grant

[@DumpMoreTea]

Listened to the audio book twice. Hit play again right after the first listen. Grant is the greatest American that America doesn’t know.

[@skate103]

Well said!

[@marknewton6984]

Ferdinand Ward thought so. Ponzi scheme..

[@cynthiahawkins2389]

I have this book now on my bedside table. I cannot put it down...during this awful quarantine in April 2020 - such distinguished company!!!

[@Holmnielsen-]

it's so good!

[@hectorbernaldo8076]

My favorite President since i was a kid. Many made fun of me because they said my favorite Pres was corrupt and a drunk. Thank God for historians like Ron Chernow and Shelby Foote to shine the true light of his goodness.

[@johnfleet235]

The rise of US Grant is amazing story, though I don't think chance had anything to do with except being in the right place at the right time. He was a West Point grad with combat experience, who had graduated from West Point in the early 1840's. I don't see Lincon giving command of all Union forces that did not have the background described above. The combat experience was important but being a West Point graduate was essential. Lee would never have surrendered to a non-West Point general. In 1861 and 1862, the pool of men with Grant's experience was small. The amazing part is that Lincoln found Grant. A general that could win, and that Lincoln was willing to support both politically and militarily.

[@Guitcad1]

"Lee would never have surrendered to a non-West Point general." Lee would have surrendered to anybody who had him in the position he was in on April 9th, 1865. His decision to surrender was due simply to having no other alternative.

[@hectorbernaldo8076]

"I can't spare the man, he fights!" - Abe Lincoln on Grant

[@beingheardmedia6339]

President Grant crushed the Klan - MY HERO!!!!

[@drizer4real]

Grant is the quintessential American hero: a virtual nobody who rose up to save the Union, from rages to riches and back again, and embodied all that is true manhood: no nonsense, hardworking, tough as to be able to withstand setbacks and punches, a positive singleminded sense of determination and focus. Grant was great because he was no superman or captain America, but a normal simple family man, who rose to the occasion when destiny knocked on the door. He could have been your neighbor and one would never expected that he would be a victorious general that would knock out three field armies and capture three forts and an enemy capital.

[@Rowlph8888]

Save the union? Well, yes, save the union money and time. He was very good in Short-term productivity and decisiveness. In terms of the victory, that was pretty much assured I think, at the time he took over . Just a matter of time The fact that the South continued to fight, when it was obvious that the tactics and time had shown that it was inevitable loss, with catastrophic loss of life, in the most inhumane and painful ways possible, was disgusting in itself.

[@skate103]

Well said indeed!!

[@marknewton6984]

@@Rowlph8888 Grant was tough but not great. Jeff Davis should have called a truce after Gettysburg. Would have saved lives on both sides.

[@northover]

can't wait to visit the new Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University. a ten Miillion dollar addition to the University's Library; opened in november 2018.

[@williambagley5415]

I need to go on a road trip from California back to Dixie again and see this great library 😎

[@williambagley5415]

I started this book a few years ago and got about 1/3 of the way through. I found the print too small and the reading of it exhausting. I'm going to pick it up again and finish it 😊🇺🇸

[@raybarry4307]

I saw the # of pages and immediately went to Audible 😂

[@stargazer7876]

It's so sad what the Lost cause has done to Grant. It's a shame. Grant at one point at his death was probably the most famous person of his time. It's a travesty what the Lost Cause has done to this man. He wasn't perfect. No . However he was a brilliant general. It's why the movie Gods and Generals was the worst movie made of all time. How they glorified the south and was a mouthpiece of the Lost cause. It's a damn shame.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

It's also a damn shame what the Lost Cause did to 160 years' worth of peckerwoods who are only now waking up to the fact that they went to their slaughter for the sake of the slavery system which kept their own wages so low.

[@jromereyes2088]

Im reading this book now! What a read

[@Holmnielsen-]

so good! home you finished it

[@delcapslock100]

Reading it now. Incredibly good read for it's length!

[@tomcaroscio]

My daughter lived across the street from Grant's Tomb when she went to graduate school in NYC. Located in Morningside Heights upper west side. Worth a visit!

[@salbo1015]

#1 general in world history. A hero to all who yearn for freedom.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Don’t overlook Mikhail Kutuzov. It is pointless to try to rank great figures. Just remember each for his accomplishments.

[@viggosmiles9496]

Grant the Movie !!

[@blaidencortel]

Peter Kleinman HBO mini series?

[@avgmaster1]

Will Smith as General Grant, or Nicole Kidman LOL!!!!!

[@imaginationforyou]

Reading this book just finished the second chapter.... Great great 🙏

[@Holmnielsen-]

so good

[@shotgun111180]

can't wait to read, have to finish his other book Washington first!

[@syedmammar1]

Will read soon!

[@lizannewhitlow1085]

Need more on James Garfield.

[@jimwind7589]

and Grant's 2 young brothers

[@statuesdesigns4223]

They need to make a play called Grant! The Greatest American ever!!! 👍

[@TexasMan77]

Checked out all 3 of his books at the library, can’t wait to read them.

[@misonoresoconto]

Alexander Hamilton was saved on the $10 bill because of Chernow; the book and the play it inspired kept Hamilton on the ten. The Grant movie should be terrific but where is it? Still waiting for the film of this book to be made.

[@Ruckweiler73]

Read his book on Alexander Hamilton which was a very good read.

[@paul-we2gf]

General Grant was the first modern General. He planned the operational action that leads to the surrender at Appamatock. Then becomes a supporter of black rights. Very impressive

[@marknewton6984]

You mean Appomattox.

[@Raison_d-etre]

This was all very interesting and I understand one can only talk about his book so many times before repeating himself, but I think this video would be more aptly named, "Chenow: the author of Grant".

[@halwarner3326]

I appreciate the comments . like many big issues there is complexity that gets entangled in bias.

What a writer. I reread the Warburgs: the first sentence reads: the German Jews were a people SHIPWRECKED BY HISTORY. I am just green with envy.

[@skate103]

Grant has always been my hero- my cats are named Grant and Sherman ❤️

[@marknewton6984]

My cat is named Stonewall.

[@nathanielb9236]

Mic is literally in the exact same spot as before. Lady did not need to come up and adjust.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

Sorry, Ron, Grant is not buried in Grant's Tomb. He's roughly two storeys above ground in Grant's Tomb.

[@charlesstuart7290]

When I see a buddy I remind him that he stuck by me when I was crazy and I stuck by him when he was drunk.

[@lizannewhitlow1085]

Leo rules! New film! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Raison_d-etre]

Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere, and by the end, his date was too old for him.

[@lemichaeldotson3254]

Ulysses S Grant would have been invited to the bbq.

[@marknewton6984]

The Last Supper?

[@claudiusjacobi6469]

History Channels series was excellent. Hope film does him justice. Hugh Jackman with a beard has a passing resemblance and can ride a horse.

[@leslopinot3619]

Need to know names of those southern "lost-cause" historians and at least some categorical refutation of their claims. If these histories are still on shelves, we nee to be alerted. Also, there could be debate about this. Otherwise this sounds more like counter-propaganda propaganda: Revenge of the Yankee Historian. Chernow, though, gives us a movie - Gone With The Wind - and argues with this romanticized version of a Southern Belle's struggles during the Civil War. I don't hold Hollywood as accountable for historical accuracy as I do historians.The war exhibited several great generals. Unfortunately for the North, it took years for the talents of Grant and Sherman to emerge, become recognized and then deployed on a large scale. Militarily, Grant did what his predecessors failed to do: exploit the Union's massive, overwhelming superiority in manpower, industrial resources, transportation and communication.[Any account which fails to dwell upon these differences - as Grant would - is intellectually and, possibly, morally flawed.] Grant's predecessors were largely unfit as tacticians and strategists - especially when compared to the "wily," inventive, bold Lee who exhibited uncanny skills in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. To denigrate Lee's abilities as a contrivance of propagandizing Southern historians is to commit the same sins alleged against the latter in defaming Grant. To ignore and fail to give measure of the great corruption in the Grant presidential administration (and his responsibilities therein) would be a great fraud - if one purports to present a "whole picture." Grant brilliantly, decisively arraigned his forces against Lee. He bravely endured the great losses and horrific criticisms to a final successful conclusion. One wonders of consequences had Lee accepted Lincoln's (and Scott's) offer of command of Union forces. Given his abilities at sizing up foes, doing the unexpected and exploiting weaknesses, would the war have been won by the North in the fist year - as Lee would likely do what Grant would eventually do. Too, he would have an advantage. He wouldn't have to face himself.

[@davelewis7915]

Grant kicked ass

[@marknewton6984]

Not at Cold Harbor.

[@davelewis7915]

🤦‍♂️

[@liviadix1433]

What I find ironic is that the Democrat party resembles the past Republican party while the Republican party aspires to be the Democratic party of years ago. What remains the same is the divisions we are unable to overcome.

[@robertgiles9124]

The kid at the end in the Question Period at 45:20 says "like" about a dozen times. You have to wonder about what the younger generation gets in their education when they speak as if clear thinking and articulation are their enemy. I was always so impressed by my European friends and how much more articulate and thoughtful they were and how aware of the whole world they seemed to be. I think Jay Leno used to have a segment about this.

Well, rejoice, he did not say, YOU KNOW, every two sentences!

But compared to THE DONALD, he must have a PhD.

[@zeroeffects88]

Calm down. “Like” is the same sort of verbal tick as “uhm,” which plenty of older people say constantly. Also, there are plenty of intelligent people who get nervous speaking in front of a crowd, never mind speaking to perhaps the greatest living biographer...

[@robertgiles9124]

Right. Like your opinion is so perceptive.

[@pseyedoc]

love the writer. the interviewer is a certified jerk.

[@barbenders]

The kid on stage with Chernow guiding the talk comes off as a bit of an elitest democrat shill.

[@williambagley5415]

I think the kid on stage is a snotty little bee-otch and needs a good slap in the face...by me 😄

[@seanselman3128]

The kid with him keeps trying to tie this somehow to Trump.

[@zabaleta66]

He's a pantywaist.....kick him off the seat.

[@jimwind7589]

ohh bless your heart

[@bobtaylor170]

@@seanselman3128 , hard to take, to say the least. We really have had enough of these Woke types giving us lectures in virtue.

[@mandyinseattle]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the questions kind of a little bit obtuse? So it seems like you admire General Grant as a great man, but how do you know? Uh, because he's done all this research and written a book for you to read and make up your own mind. The question seem childish to me. Nobody's perfect but Grant is pretty damn impressive, objectively speaking, I think anyone could say, unless you're a confederate supporter and intellectually dishonest. Not that the interviewer is but those people might not admit Grant's skills and talents and generosity.

[@DZsWill12321]

In fairness, being a good host is just getting them to talk about everything and its hard to do that without sounding a little clueless. I think in that case he was trying to get him to open up to the researching process

[@tedosmond413]

Both the japanese and germans faced their defeat and the future with greater dignity than did the Lee and the CSA.

[@bobtaylor170]

What horse manure. You must not be aware that occupation forces in Germany were fighting roaming wolf packs of persistent Nazi commandos into the late 1940s.

[@bobtaylor170]

The vast majority of Southerners resigned themselves to destruction. There weren't many KKK types, and the ones who were, were trying to keep blacks from voting. They weren't trying to kill American soldiers. As for Lee, it's hard to imagine a more appropriate kind of behavior in a man so consequentially defeated.

[@marknewton6984]

Blame Jefferson Davis, not Lee.

[@pstha4537]

Grant was too merciful. That was his biggest problem. He lost the civil war actually because racism and oppression was still there.

[@GH-oi2jf]

It was not an objective of the Civil War to eradicate racism.

[@JRobbySh]

What’s with all the white guilt stuff? What Kelly meant was what most historians have recognized which is that secession was the major issue of the war, not slavery. THAT was the Lost Cause, not slavery. Slavery was the cause of secession, and the Secessionists refused to compromise on that issue. The North proposed to qua rantee slavery by amending the Constitution, but that compromise was not accepted by the secessionists or the radical minority in the North.

The Gettysburg Address is a masterpiece of rhetoric of dubious logic: by the people for the people...... were the South not a people.......

[@DeathWishMonkey]

What you described is not the modern historical consensus; it is outdated Lost Cause historiography of the previous century.

[@texasforever7887]

So slavery caused succession which caused the war??? See what you did there. Can we simply recognize that history is dirty and social morals change. Stop being such snowflakes and stop white washing history Hell the Confederate constitution explicitly states that the institution of slavery was the cause of secession and the speeches and arguments of the statesmen secession conventions were all about slavery. Can we just stop the lost cause myth crap. Yes I'm white and don't care about anyone's feelings. This is our history. Edit* you are correct in that Lincoln and the north didn't want to abolish slavery and the south overreacted and committed political suicide. All Lincoln wanted to do was stop the expansion of slavery into the new territories.

[@texasforever7887]

@ according to the supreme court at the time, no black people were not people and according to the US Constitution they were 3/5Ths of a person. That is why the 13th amendment was required to abolish it.

[@neilpemberton5523]

@@texasforever7887Your post got me thinking. If southern leaders had waited to negotiate with Lincoln in good faith instead of seceeding, they could have been offered compensation for freeing their slaves if Lincoln's political skills found a path to swing public opinion in the North. Of course the Fire Eaters feared any sort of compromise, so secession happened instead, and the Confederacy formed while putting a gun to its own head. Jeff Davis pulled the trigger by firing on Sumter, not being wise enough to listen in the cabinet room to Robert Toombs, who perfectly predicted the result of starting a war with the US. Both Texas Governor Sam Houston and William Tecumseh Sherman, superintendent of a new military school in Louisiana, also said the same as Toombs to anyone who would listen. Houston lost his job and died two years later, and Sherman went North to fight under Grant and in 1864-65 to equal, in public estimation at least, Grant's contribution in winning the war. It was doubly ironic that the racist conservative democrat George McClellan helped put the end of slavery on Lincoln's agenda and keep it there. McClellan's bungled Peninsula Campaign was key in nudging Lincoln towards the Emancipation Proclamation, and by strategically defeating Lee at Antietam he unknowingly granted Lincoln the moment to release it. Little Mac's feeble generalship against Lee in the Seven Days' Battles and arrogant insubordination in advising Lincoln to not interfere with slavery as a war aim only helped convince Lincoln that he needed a much more aggressive kind of general officer fighting a much more expansive style of war. After Grant and Sherman had fought through to the war's endgame, Lincoln delivered the coup de grace. As a brilliant Presidential Cabinet scene in Spielberg's movie Lincoln shows, the Emancipation Proclamation was merely a key war powers measure which therefore failed to guarantee the death of slavery, hence the need for the 13th amendment.