The Complete Personal Memoirs of General Ulysses S. Grant

Detailed and insightful. An amazing look into the mind of a battlefield general's thinking.

I bought the unabridged Audio CD, which is a huge bargain and played great in my car CD player.I read 2 biographies about Grant first and then this autobiography. The biographies were by Chernow (first) and Brands (second). I recommend the Brands book. A reason to buy that first is because you will learn something you need to know about Grant > after he left the Presidency, Grant was in great financial shape until he was swindled and lost everything ($750,000) - he only had about $100 left. Shortly after that happened, he learned he had incurable throat cancer (probably from the cigars). Can you imagine? Most people would have given up - but not Grant. How could Mrs. Grant avoid poverty? Mark Twain was a friend of Grant's and offered Grant 70% of the profits if he would write an autobiography. Grant forced himself to write it even though he was dying. It was a huge success. It made $350,000 for Mrs. Grant - a HUGE amount of money in that day (like $10 million today). Grant died shortly after completing the book. I have a lot of respect for Mark Twain for helping Grant by giving him a MUCH better deal than anyone else would have given Grant.Read the Brands book first and then the Autobiography. If you like Grant, you will enjoy his Autobiography very much - I did.Grant was an AMAZING guy - brilliant, honest and good in every way. I think he's one of the most important people in US history - definitely Top 10 - with Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, etc.You will see that the North would NOT have won the Civil War without Grant - at the least the North would have made a deal with the South to allow them to keep slavery, because the voters in the North were getting tired of the War. Without Grants victories, Lincoln would have probably lost in the 1864 election - Grant's victories gave Americans hope. When you read the Autobiography you will see that Grant was a good, humble, fair, honest, dependable guy and that he was a military genius. He was like a Chess Master and could comprehend what was happening and all the alternative courses of action and their consequences, AND he was aggressive. Most of the other Generals would NOT follow up an advantage - they would stop and rest, giving the Confederates an opportunity to escape or entrench.I like and respect Grant very much. That's why I'm writing this review - Grant deserves more credit than he gets.You will also learn that Sherman and Sheridan were critical to winning the War, that Lincoln was a good guy, and that Stanton was a jerk.

I freely confess to having read this book simply because I one day remembered that it existed and that I hadn't read it. It seemed to me a gaping lacuna in my reading history. Now, having read it, I must say that the writing is competent - as it was edited by Mark Twain, one shouldn't expect less - and these memoirs of the famous General's life from birth to the end of the American Civil War are quite interesting, especially for someone such as myself who, due to my upbringing, knows rather too much about the history of Europe, whilst knowledge of the history of my adopted country remains comparatively scanty. But I must say here that I am not concerned here with the American Civil War as such, but rather with the personality of Grant and the role he played in them. These are, after all, "Personal Memoirs."What a rum fellow Grant seems to me, having finished the book, especially in Volume I. Volume II tends to bog the reader down in tactics, dispatches, skirmishes and engagements with - to me - very odd names for the locations of these set-tos all piled rapidly on top of one another. Grant is a curiously passive figure in his philosophical outlook. He didn't fancy going to Westpoint, was surprised he passed the entrance examination and, whilst there, hoped that a bill pending in Congress to abolish the military academy would pass. It didn't.Early on, during his account of the Mexican War, he lists two separate accidental deaths of superiors who were favourable to the young Grant and the effect that they had on his career, and then comments: "Neither of these speculations is unreasonable, and they are mentioned to show how little men control their own destiny."Throughout the book, proponents of free will or choice will find Grant as dogged an adversary as ever the Confederates did. Again, after being selected as head of all the National armies - The term "Union army" is not to be encountered herein. - Grant states again, "It is men who wait to be selected, and not from those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service." This determinism rather surprised me coming from an American where the credo is that each man makes his own destiny. Grant seems to have been what pop psychologists of today would denominate a "Type B" personality, through and through.But, once selected, Grant was as tenacious as a pit bull, as the Vicksburg and all subsequent campaigns bear out. He speculates upon this sterling quality (for a commanding officer) in him thusly: "Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine is that in positions of great responsibility everyone should do his duty to the best of his ability where assigned by competent authority, without application or the use of influence to change his position."And Grant carries out his duties, once assigned, with unmatched doggedness. An interesting read, this book, especially Volume I---The bewildering intricacies of Volume II are what leads me to bequeath it four stars - the memoirs of a man both determined and deterministic.

on en a pour son argent. le prix faible est justifié par une impression sur du papier de photocopieuse de 60 ou 70gr grand max... mise en page inexistante: bordures bien trop grande à mon sens..ca ressemble à un manuel. si votre intention est de le passer entierement au fluo alors n hesitez pas.+ seul point positif notable:la converture est entierement vernis mat. (1eme/4eme/tranche)

First hand recollection of the American civil war. It is (obviously!) written in the style of the time, which makes the reader ‘work’ a bit harder - but this also provides a real understanding of the thinking, and the values, of people who lived through the events. Ulysses Grant was an amazing person, so humble about his own skills and contribution to the Union - but also possessing the confidence and decisiveness sadly lacking in other generals. He was also that rare type of leader who is willing to listen to others, and to recognise their skills when proven on the battlefield. He comes across as a person of real integrity - which is 9n stark contrast to the political leadership in the US today....and how tragic, given the hardships endured, and the loss of life difficult of the civil war, which created the modern nation!

MRP is 599, not 699. Got it for 390. I will not attempt to review a book which has achieved universal acclaim as a masterpiece

Purchased the Kindle edition. Have read many various books on the American Civil War and having just read US Grant memoirs, one can appreciate the life that he had in those times.

I bought this book as a complement to my knowledge of the Civil War. US Grant goes through his military career and every battlefield he was involved in during the Mexican and Civil War. Even if the stories of the battlefield movements are sometimes hard to follow, many operations being done simultaneously and without the benefit of military charts or plans to fully understand them, the reader will learn very fast that US Grant was not only courageous and deternined, he was also a military genious. More so than Robert E Lee who mainly fought defensively in a country he knew well, backed by the population who informed him of all the Union's movements. In fact, almost every offensive action Lee undertook during the War ended in defeat.However, what I enjoyed even more was Grant's political assessment of the Civil War reasons and roots. Those are way clearer than anything you can ever read on the subject. Also, Grant's view about Lincoln, Stanton, and many of his colleagues, be it Union or Confederate, are treasures to read. His frankness about Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, James Longstreet, George Meade, Phil Sheridan or William Sherman is astonishing.You cannot understand the Civil War fully if you haven't read Personal Memoirs.