The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Book Reviews

The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant & Philip Dossick Book Summary

Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs are compelling, brutally honest, and a chronicle of triumph and failure, from his boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War (ironically) rescued him. 

They have earned plaudits from critics over the years, revealing not only his mastery of particular battlefields and campaigns but the clarity of his understanding of the grand strategy of the Civil War. 

It begins with his comprehension of the primary cause of the war: slavery.

Grant is writing as an observer and a participant to some of the most pivotal events in U.S. history. 

Even more, he's writing as a central actor and as, arguably, the most significant military figure of the Civil War. 

Confederate General Robert E. Lee is hailed as a battlefield genius, but it was Grant who was most responsible for winning the war for the North.

Free of the romantic gloss that encumbers many Civil War reminiscences, Grant’s narrative marches forward in taut, sinewy prose that occasionally achieves true distinction. 


ULYSSES S. GRANT (1822 – 1885) was Commanding General of the United States Army (1864–69). Grant worked with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Twice elected president, Grant led the Republicans in their effort to remove the last traces of Confederate nationalism and slavery, protect African-American citizenship, and supported nationwide industrial expansionism during the Gilded Age.

"The autobiography of General Grant is the most admirably simple, direct and unpretentious story that was ever put on paper by a supremely great man.”
-Mark Twain

“An enthralling history of one man's generalship, perhaps the most revelatory autobiography of high command to exist in any language.”
-John Keegan

“About once a decade it becomes necessary to remind Americans again that Ulysses S. Grant was a great man, indeed a giant figure.”
-Michael Korda

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The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses S. Grant & Philip Dossick) Book Reviews 2024

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