Rating: 
Summary: Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts!
Review: There are already several reviews of this book printed here, with which I agree heartily, so I'll keep my comments brief. Perret's "Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier and President," is the twelfth book on Grant that I've read (I can't seem to get enough of this topic). Perret's writing is crisp and intelligent. He doesn't drag out his thesis in long jumbled sentences, rather, he keeps his reader focused on the point he is trying to make on each phase of Grant's personal and professional life. He exposes flaws in previous Grant biographies by proving their lack of documented evidence and holding the authors to task for their shoddy scholarship. At the same time, he does not give the impression that he intends to "show up" other Grant biographers, he just sets the record straight. I recommend this biography to anyone who wants to understand America in the Nineteenth century. Ulysses S. Grant is the key: he saved the Union, he fought for the rights of the freedmen during Reconstruction, he was always honest-though he did make his share of mistakes - and when he erred, he accepted the responsibility for his mistakes. Grant was a devoted family man, was loyal to his friends and forgiving of his enemies. He was humble and appeared ordinary, yet he achieved amazing things. Perret's most insightful point in this work is his statement that Grant's religion was patiotism. I agree. No one ever loved this country more.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fabulous Biography
Review: There are already several reviews of this book printed here, with which I agree heartily, so I'll keep my comments brief. Perret's "Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier and President," is the twelfth book on Grant that I've read (I can't seem to get enough of this topic). Perret's writing is crisp and intelligent. He doesn't drag out his thesis in long jumbled sentences, rather, he keeps his reader focused on the point he is trying to make on each phase of Grant's personal and professional life. He exposes flaws in previous Grant biographies by proving their lack of documented evidence and holding the authors to task for their shoddy scholarship. At the same time, he does not give the impression that he intends to "show up" other Grant biographers, he just sets the record straight. I recommend this biography to anyone who wants to understand America in the Nineteenth century. Ulysses S. Grant is the key: he saved the Union, he fought for the rights of the freedmen during Reconstruction, he was always honest-though he did make his share of mistakes - and when he erred, he accepted the responsibility for his mistakes. Grant was a devoted family man, was loyal to his friends and forgiving of his enemies. He was humble and appeared ordinary, yet he achieved amazing things. Perret's most insightful point in this work is his statement that Grant's religion was patiotism. I agree. No one ever loved this country more.
Rating:
Summary: A Fabulous Biography
Review: There are already several reviews of this book printed here, with which I agree heartily, so I'll keep my comments brief. Perret's "Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier and President," is the twelfth book on Grant that I've read (I can't seem to get enough of this topic). Perret's writing is crisp and intelligent. He doesn't drag out his thesis in long jumbled sentences, rather, he keeps his reader focused on the point he is trying to make on each phase of Grant's personal and professional life. He exposes flaws in previous Grant biographies by proving their lack of documented evidence and holding the authors to task for their shoddy scholarship. At the same time, he does not give the impression that he intends to "show up" other Grant biographers, he just sets the record straight. I recommend this biography to anyone who wants to understand America in the Nineteenth century. Ulysses S. Grant is the key: he saved the Union, he fought for the rights of the freedmen during Reconstruction, he was always honest-though he did make his share of mistakes - and when he erred, he accepted the responsibility for his mistakes. Grant was a devoted family man, was loyal to his friends and forgiving of his enemies. He was humble and appeared ordinary, yet he achieved amazing things. Perret's most insightful point in this work is his statement that Grant's religion was patiotism. I agree. No one ever loved this country more.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre and mistake-ridden
Review: This biography mistakes being glib with being witty, and betrays an interest in pop psychology that tells us more about the author than the subject. Perret's insufferably conceited about his knowledge of Grant, which is most amusing, because the poor fellow really knows so little. The text is riddled with factual mistakes and some real gaffes, rendering its durability suspect. There are much better books out there on Grant; don't embarrass yourself with one which compares John Rawlins to River Phoenix, a dated (and trite) comparison if ever there was one. Breezy prose cannot conceal Perret's lack of mastery of his subject. The fellow's simply out of his depth, and one suspects he was always most comfortable in shallow water. You want mistakes? Let's look at Chapter 24. McClellan did not win much of the soldier vote in 1864 (p. 351); soldiers voted in larger numbers for Lincoln than did the general electorate. Lincoln only visited City Point twice (contra p. 349); Jubal Early did not burn Chambersburg during his mid-July 1864 raid on Washington; that came later that month (p. 344); Lee's army did not number 9,000 at Appomattox (p. 358) but 25,000, 8,000 of whom bore arms; Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term on March 4, 1865, not March 3 (p. 357); Lincoln met Confederate commissioners at Hampton Roads, not City Point (same page); the battle of Franklin did not take place on November 15, 1864 (p. 354); Horace Porter, not Rawlins,visited Sherman in September 1864 (p. 353); and on and on and on. The scholarship is slipshod at best.
Rating:
Summary: Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts!
Review: This book is truly an astonishing piece of work. Considering its grotesque factual errors and bizarre misreadings of source material (more than I have ever seen in a single work of non-fiction,) the pompous writing style, the author's grating tendency to make childishly snide (and irrelevant) side comments, and--most bafflingly--the remarkable hatchet-job he does on Grant's wife Julia, I think I can state unhesitatingly that this is the most thoroughly unprofessional biography of anyone I have ever read. I find myself genuinely baffled that Perret evidently still has a career as a historian. As appalled as I am by the thought that readers who had no prior knowledge about Grant will be led to take some of this tripe seriously, I am even more stunned by reviewers who state unblushingly that Perret's allergy to accuracy does not matter, as long as he is pro-Grant and writes in what is, to them, an appealing writing style! There are few people who defend Grant more wholeheartedly than I do (hey, I even maintain he was a pretty good President,) but I believe that a bad defense of USG can, in the long run, be as damaging to his reputation as no defense at all. My advice to Grant neophytes? Read the man's own words, in his acclaimed memoirs and fascinating private letters, as well as first person accounts like "Campaigning With Grant," and give this silliness a wide berth. And those cracks of his about Julia REALLY set my teeth on edge.
Rating: 
Summary: The PC Biography of US Grant
Review: This book seems to have been intended for high school readers, if there are still any interested in studying the history of the Civil War. It manages, despite the books' length and focus, to be superficial. The language is often awkward and trite. The author never lets a chance to get in some "politically correct" dig at things like slavery to escape his text, and manages to discuss these issues in a way that sounds more like a sermon from the front of a 10th grade class than a serious biography. Like other readers, I was dismayed at the poor writing and editing of this book from a major publisher. How did it get those gushing reviews from professional reviewers? Grant himself wrote beautifully; his two-volume Memoirs are still delicious, if you can find a set. And Horace Porter's Campaigning With Grant is another delightful read, direct from someone who watched Grant in action.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Biography of an outstanding President and General
Review: This easily readable biography has really put into perspective the complexities of this great man. I never realized how little I knew about U. S. Grant until I read this book. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Civil War or American history.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Biography
Review: This is a good book. It is a much more fair treatment of Grant than the relatively recent McFeely biography. It does a good job of showing Grant's strengths and weaknesses. While not a Civil War specialist, author Perret is still a noteworthy military historian who offers a valuable perspective of Grant's strategy and character.
Rating:
Summary: The worst Grant book of all
Review: This is a terrible book, full of mistakes of the most elemental types. The author hasn't got a clue about the real Ulysses S. Grant and it shows throughout this limping entry into the Grant field. This book is regarded as a fatuous joke among those who follow Grant's life. My advice is to avoid it like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: The worst Grant book of all
Review: This is a terrible book, full of mistakes of the most elemental types. The author hasn't got a clue about the real Ulysses S. Grant and it shows throughout this limping entry into the Grant field. This book is regarded as a fatuous joke among those who follow Grant's life. My advice is to avoid it like the plague.
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