num_pages: 384
description: At the time of his death Ulysses S. Grant was the most famous person in America considered by most citizens to be equal in stature to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet today his monuments are rarely visited his military reputation is overshadowed by that of Robert E. Lee and his presidency is permanently mired at the bottom of historical rankings.In an insightful blend of biography and cultural history Joan Waugh traces Grant's shifting national and international reputation illuminating the role of memory in our understanding of American history. She captures a sense of what led nineteenth-century Americans to overlook Grant's obvious faults and hold him up as a critically important symbol of national reconciliation and unity. Waugh further shows that Grant's reputation and place in public memory closely parallel the rise and fall of the northern version of the Civil War story  in which the United States was the clear morally superior victor and Grant was
language: English
title: U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth
publisher: The University of North Carolina Press