A House Divided: The Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee (Scholastic Biography)

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I thought that "A House Divided: The Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee" was a wonderful book. I especillay liked it because I'm a Civil War fenatic. It was not only intresting but accurate. It was a fun to read book. It tells about how Grant, a contry boy who grew up on a farm in Ohio who when he was about 17 went to West Point and graduated yet the sight of blood made him loose his apitate yet he went to war and won against Lee. Lee was a proper slave owner and grew up on his father's plantaion, he had manners and was a very good student at West Point. Yet he was one if not the 1st. person to graduate from his class at West Piont and still lost to gruffy Grant. Read this book if you want to learn more about Lee and Grant. It also has pictures of them.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginners' biography of Lee and Grant
Review: Not everyone is excited by history or the Civil War or even biographies of historical personalities. My daughters (age 14) were required in home school to read biographies of famous Americans. They were easily inspired by biographies of women -- entertainers, leaders, women who overcame adversity. But men were less interesting. And men known specifically for their historical contributions were downright boring. One of my twins started reading this book and loved it. The side-by-side biographical sketches provided enough information to interest her and offered a format for making snapshot comparisons. She is definitely NOT a history buff and is NOT a lover of biographies; however, for a short piece of her life she took time off from the Hardy Boys and read about (and discussed) two great men, the Civil War, and pieces of American history. (She went on to read about Civil War photography.)

Rating:
Summary: Utterly vapid
Review: Unless you're purchasing this book for a child, avoid it. The text is written at the level of a fourth grader and the conclusions drawn are about as weighty. There are numerous errors pockmarking the book, some of them not inconsequential (Grant did not graduate from West Point in 1845, but 1843).

If you want a readable and scholarly book on either Grant or Lee, don't buy a dual biography. Each man is much too vast and important to cover in such a manner. Opt for Emory Thomas' Lee biography and Campaigning with Grant by Horace Porter. These books will illuminate the titans of the civil war much better than this sorry effort.