Around the World with General Grant

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books you will ever read!
Review: If you like General Grant, history, geography and want to go back in time, look no further. As a Grant biographer I can state that this is one of the most factual and detailed books you will ever read on General Grant's two year trip around the world. I can't thank John Russell Young enough times for shedding light into there everyday activities. If it were not for Mr. Young's book, two years of Grant's life would remain a Mystery. Originally it was published as a 20 value collection which I own. It is very nice to see this masterpiece resurface after 120 years.

After studying and researching Grant photographs for the past 10 years I could state that it would be impossible to identify the dates and locations of many of Grant's photographs if not for this book. It is truly amazing how Grant met so many Kings, Queens and dignitaries around the world. He was treated as the "King of America" and obtained every nations friendship towards the United States. A truly amazing book that takes you back in time!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books you will ever read!
Review: If you like General Grant, history, geography and want to go back in time, look no further. As a Grant biographer I can state that this is one of the most factual and detailed books you will ever read on General Grant's two year trip around the world. I can't thank John Russell Young enough times for shedding light into there everyday activities. If it were not for Mr. Young's book, two years of Grant's life would remain a Mystery. Originally it was published as a 20 value collection which I own. It is very nice to see this masterpiece resurface after 120 years.

After studying and researching Grant photographs for the past 10 years I could state that it would be impossible to identify the dates and locations of many of Grant's photographs if not for this book. It is truly amazing how Grant met so many Kings, Queens and dignitaries around the world. He was treated as the "King of America" and obtained every nations friendship towards the United States. A truly amazing book that takes you back in time!

Rating:
Summary: A great improvement over the original!
Review: Initially I was flabbergasted that anyone would reprint this epic work from 1879. I have the original two-volume set and in its original form it is dated, to say the least. The voluminous set contained so much filler material that it resembled an elaborate travelogue when General and Mrs. Grant appear only occasionally. In thousands of pages of text and line drawings, Grant appears in only 25% of the total pages.

However, this new edition is edited by Michael Fellman and he does quite a nifty job in eliminating the extraneous material and retaining the essentially great elements of Young's original volumes. The heart of the book is Grant's table talk, where he spoke with rare candor about some of his civil war contemporaries such as Lee, Longstreet, Jackson, Sheridan and Sherman. These comments still resonate today, and rarely did Grant speak about these men at such length or with such perception.

John Russell Young idolized Grant and saw in him the qualities that make him the quintessential American hero. Grant was a bashful, hopelessly naive and honest man, and these traits come through in this work, illuminating his wry humor and extremely likeable character. Fellman has done well in editing this new version which focuses the reader on Grant and not trivial details about flowers, luggage or place settings. A nice book!

Rating:
Summary: Why Did They Bother?
Review: When I first discovered the existence of this volume, I was frankly puzzled. Why reissue the dullest Grant book this side of Adam Badeau's "Military History"? Having read this abridgment, I am still pondering the strange ways of publishers. The editing on this book seems to have been done virtually at random--many of the few interesting anecdotes in Young's book have disappeared, while pages and pages of tedium remain in all their original glory.

The book's main selling point--the "Table talk" or informal interviews Young conducted with Grant--are mildly interesting in spots, but are not, on the whole, valuable enough to justify this new edition, particularly since Young's original two volumes are readily available at most libraries and on the internet's various used bookstores. Instead of wasting their time on such a relatively common and uninteresting work, I wish the publishers had turned their attention to reissuing more compelling old books on Grant that are less readily available.