Rating: 
Summary: Imagine US Grant telling his story to you.
Review: I didn't really "read" this book. Instead, I listened to it. Over several commutes to and from work I listened to US Grant tell me about his life, his view of the decisions he made, his assessment of the other people he came in contact with (President Lincoln, for example). When the tape was complete, I found myself wanting more. I finally found a copy of the hardcover book in a used book store.
Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: This amazing man's amazing book
Review: I have been a history 'buff' all my life, and read what I thought were some of the best books about and set in the American Civil War. But until I read Ulysses Grant's Personal Memoirs, that wasn't true. I would never have believed that a career soldier and a very misunderstood, under rated US President could write such a fascinating, enthralling memoir of a time in our history we all think we know all we need to know.
If you haven't read this wonderful book yet, I'm going to be bold and say you don't really know what the war was like for the men who fought in it, led the men who fought in it, and who drove themselves, as Grant did, for the sole purpose of perserving the Union and ending the war as swiftly as humanly possible. His insights are invalueable for the time, and his humor and pathos are electrifying.
A reviewer on the back of this volume says it most clearly: Grant writes his memoirs so vividly, so humanly that you are on the edge of your seat the whole way through, waiting to see how the Civil War ends!
And perhaps most amazing of all, Ulysses Grant wrote and revised and finished the manuscript for this book in the winter and spring and early summer of 1885, while he was dying of throat cancer. Also, he wrote it not to aggrandize himself, but to help his family, when bad business partners bankrupted the former President and Victor of the Civil War.
This is a must read as far as I'm concerned for anyone who wants to understand that time and understand why the American Civil War was the transforming event of the American 19th century.
Rielle
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books Available on the Civil War
Review: I have never been much of a Civil War fan, but after reading "The Killer Angels" by Shaara, a historical fiction about Gettysburg, I was interested in following up with some non-fiction about the most important event in US History. This book kept me turning the pages from end to end. Despite its bulk (some 618 pages) I simply couldn't put the book down, as Grant's matter-of-fact description of the events that surrounded him was completely engrossing.Grant was not an extraordinary man or brilliant tactician, his soldiers did not have the same obsession with him that the South held for Lee, he simply saw the war for what it was, a campaign against a rebellion. He looked at the entire war in its entirety, from battlefront to battlefront, and he repeatedly used that to his advantage. Many times he makes reference to deploying troops to no clear end other than to occupy an enemies flank, this often as a junior with no authority over the battle as a whole. Grant was a man of action, who realized he had to take a step in order to walk a mile. He took the battle to the enemy, divised clear and necessary steps which were needed to win the war as a whole. He was a general who did not just see the war as independent sets of battles, but saw those battles as a means to ending the Civil War. One of my favorite parts of the text was watching the scope of Grant's vision widen. Starting with his actions in the Mexican American War his vision is very limited: he sees only the immediate battle, and his descriptions focus on minutiae reflecting his low rank. His vision escalates with his rank, until the end of the book, with the surrender of Lee, he sees and describes the entire army, and battles that would have once taken chapters to described are now dismissed in single sentences. My one disappointment with the book was that it ended with the surrender of Lee at Appomatox. I would have liked to learn more about his actions after the war, and especially learned more about his presidency. I wish that there were similar autobiographies by other presidents, and certainly feel that this one elevated my expectations of all other autobiographies! Favote Excerpts: "It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service." - Grant (page 368) "All he wanted or had ever wanted was some one who would take the responsibility and act, and call on him for all the assistance needed, pledging himself to use all the power of the government in rendering such assistance." - Grant on Lincoln (page 370) "Wars product many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true." - Grant (page 577) "To maintain peace in the future it is necessary to be prepared for war." - Grant (page 614) "The war begot a spirit of independence and enterprise. The feeling now is, that a youth must cut loose from his old surroundings to enable him to get up in the world." - Grant (page 616)
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books Available on the Civil War
Review: I have never been much of a Civil War fan, but after reading "The Killer Angels" by Shaara, a historical fiction about Gettysburg, I was interested in following up with some non-fiction about the most important event in US History. This book kept me turning the pages from end to end. Despite its bulk (some 618 pages) I simply couldn't put the book down, as Grant's matter-of-fact description of the events that surrounded him was completely engrossing. Grant was not an extraordinary man or brilliant tactician, his soldiers did not have the same obsession with him that the South held for Lee, he simply saw the war for what it was, a campaign against a rebellion. He looked at the entire war in its entirety, from battlefront to battlefront, and he repeatedly used that to his advantage. Many times he makes reference to deploying troops to no clear end other than to occupy an enemies flank, this often as a junior with no authority over the battle as a whole. Grant was a man of action, who realized he had to take a step in order to walk a mile. He took the battle to the enemy, divised clear and necessary steps which were needed to win the war as a whole. He was a general who did not just see the war as independent sets of battles, but saw those battles as a means to ending the Civil War. One of my favorite parts of the text was watching the scope of Grant's vision widen. Starting with his actions in the Mexican American War his vision is very limited: he sees only the immediate battle, and his descriptions focus on minutiae reflecting his low rank. His vision escalates with his rank, until the end of the book, with the surrender of Lee, he sees and describes the entire army, and battles that would have once taken chapters to described are now dismissed in single sentences. My one disappointment with the book was that it ended with the surrender of Lee at Appomatox. I would have liked to learn more about his actions after the war, and especially learned more about his presidency. I wish that there were similar autobiographies by other presidents, and certainly feel that this one elevated my expectations of all other autobiographies! Favote Excerpts: "It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service." - Grant (page 368) "All he wanted or had ever wanted was some one who would take the responsibility and act, and call on him for all the assistance needed, pledging himself to use all the power of the government in rendering such assistance." - Grant on Lincoln (page 370) "Wars product many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true." - Grant (page 577) "To maintain peace in the future it is necessary to be prepared for war." - Grant (page 614) "The war begot a spirit of independence and enterprise. The feeling now is, that a youth must cut loose from his old surroundings to enable him to get up in the world." - Grant (page 616)
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, but knowledge of the Civil War is helpful
Review: I just wanted to add that this book is best read after watching the PBS "Civil War" miniseries. Grant talks a lot about the details of certain battles, but does not give a "big picture" perspective. The details would have worn me down if I didn't have some idea of the big picture, which I got through the Civil War miniseries. Grant's recollections of the siege of Vicksburg made the book for me.
Rating:
Summary: My Family is American...
Review: I was concerned that a book written over one hundred years ago might seem a bit dated in it's style. I need not have worried, except for a very few instances such as spelling reconnaissance > reconnoissance and the word embarassed used as meaning "to threaten," this book could have been written yesterday. When it first came out in 1885 it was a great success. The informed reader will quickly realize that this was not out of sympathy for Grant, the great general who was dying of throat cancer while writing it, but well deserved recognition of a great autobiography. I have read some of the better modern civil war historians such as Shelby Foote, Bruce Catton, and Winston Groom; Grant's book ranks up there with the very best.
Rating:
Summary: Old wine in new bottles
Review: I'm a little irritated at the usually terrific Modern Library. They have hatched a new series of volumes on "War", with a general introduction by Caleb Carr. Apparently, however, aside from the slick covers, no attempt was made to provide the reader with any original material, such as maps, appendices, notes or other scholarly material. The edition of Grant's memoirs contains a new, curt, unhelpful introduction by Geoffrey Perret. (Perret offhandedly mentions that Grant's memory diverges from the facts on more than one occasion, but makes no attempt to further elucidate a matter that would obviously be of high interest to the reader.)The maps are old, crabbed and often difficult to follow; the geographically-challenged reader, such as myself, is often obliged to consult a road atlas to follow the Western campaigns. The memoirs themselves are terrific. Grant's plain, homely soldier's style, with dashes of self-deprecation and dry irony, is engrossing reading.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: I'm not a Civil War or military fan, but I really enjoyed reading these memoires. I expected a very dry book, but General Grant provides a great narrative, slipping in a sly sense of humor at times. My recommendation is that the publishers provide better maps. I needed to use an atlas and detailed maps off the internet.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! Simply the best military memoir I've read.
Review: No less an eminent man of letters than Mark Twain called Ulysses S. Grant's "Personal Memoirs" "the best [memoirs] of any General's than Caesars." Having now read this outstanding work along with those of Julius Caesar, William T. Sherman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, I must agree with Mark Twain's assessment. For sheer honesty, humility, and simple but powerful language, U.S. Grant's memoirs are without peer. Grant allows the reader to go along with him and live once again his experiences during the Mexican War and American Civil War. He interjects his own judgments and opinions sparingly, yet always honestly. Where he feels he made mistakes, he admits them freely, and his criticisms of his colleagues is always tempered by an obvious attitude of professionalism. The fact that Grant wrote a memoir of such eloquence while dying from cancer makes it all the more powerful a book. I found this modern library edition especially outstanding. The introductory notes by Caleb Carr and Geoffrey Perret, while brief, are extremely informative. Maps and etchings from the original 1885 Charles Webster & Co. edition are included, as is General Grant's report to Secretary of War Stanton on Civil War operations during 1864-65. This appendix makes fantastic reading by itself! I highly recommend this outstanding edition to all Civil War and military history enthusiasts. It is simply the best military memoir I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! Simply the best military memoir I've read.
Review: No less an eminent man of letters than Mark Twain called Ulysses S. Grant's "Personal Memoirs" "the best [memoirs] of any General's than Caesars." Having now read this outstanding work along with those of Julius Caesar, William T. Sherman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, I must agree with Mark Twain's assessment. For sheer honesty, humility, and simple but powerful language, U.S. Grant's memoirs are without peer. Grant allows the reader to go along with him and live once again his experiences during the Mexican War and American Civil War. He interjects his own judgments and opinions sparingly, yet always honestly. Where he feels he made mistakes, he admits them freely, and his criticisms of his colleagues is always tempered by an obvious attitude of professionalism. The fact that Grant wrote a memoir of such eloquence while dying from cancer makes it all the more powerful a book. I found this modern library edition especially outstanding. The introductory notes by Caleb Carr and Geoffrey Perret, while brief, are extremely informative. Maps and etchings from the original 1885 Charles Webster & Co. edition are included, as is General Grant's report to Secretary of War Stanton on Civil War operations during 1864-65. This appendix makes fantastic reading by itself! I highly recommend this outstanding edition to all Civil War and military history enthusiasts. It is simply the best military memoir I've ever read.
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