About the Author

H. W. BRANDS is the Dickson Allen Anderson Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and again for Traitor to His Class. His website is www.hwbrands.com.

Reviews

Praise for "The Man Who Saved the Union
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"Through Grant, Mr. Brands paints a vivid landscape of mid-19th-century America filling his canvas with fascinating characters . . . Mr. Brands's prose is engaging, almost conversational, and the narrative moves briskly."
--"The Wall Street Journal
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"Comprehensive, dramatic, and highly readable . . . H.W. Brands has written an authoritative, action-packed, and well-rounded biography of a very human Ulysses S. Grant."
--"Philadelphia Inquirer
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"In this splendidly written biography, University of Texas at Austin professor H.W. Brands does justice to one of America's most underrated presidents . . . Brands is both sympathetic and thorough in his examination of Grant's life. "The Man Who Saved the Union" makes clear that Grant did precisely that. The end of the Civil War did not mark the end of the divisions that had so badly weakened the country, and during Reconstruction those divisions threatened to plunge America back into chaos. Brands has provided a valuable service by making clear how much America owes to Ulysses Grant."
--"Dallas Morning News
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"Thorough, balanced, and a good read . . . Brands deserves great praise for once more attempting to put Ulysses S. Grant where he belongs, in the pantheon of American heroes."
--Michael Korda, "The Daily Beast
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"Brands's Grant is captured crisply in the title of his new biography: "The Man Who Saved the Union." But Brands's Grant is more than that. He is, like the increasingly accepted view of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 'indisputably above politics, ' a crusader against race hatred, a warrior against what Grant himself called 'lawlessness, turbulence, and bloodshed, ' friend to black and Indian alike. . . . Brands artfully portrays Grant as a man of his times--'his adult life had coincided with the Union's long crisis'--and argues, persuasively, that he played a role in settling the great questions of his time."
"--The Boston Globe
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Praise for "The Man Who Saved the Union
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"Once again, H. W. Brands has crafted a wonderful portrait of a great leader who endured and prevailed in hours of stress and strain. Brands's U. S. Grant is a compelling figure, a man too often overlooked by history. This book rectifies that with grace and insight."
--Jon Meacham, author of "American Lion," winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography
"Too frequently overshadowed or overlooked, U. S. Grant finally gets his due in H. W. Brands' splendid new biography. With verve and his trademark scholarship, Brands vividly brings Grant to life. Here, rendered in all his humanity, is the soldier, statesman, president. Here, too, is a man as much for our time as for his."
--Jay Winik, author of "April 1865" and "The Great Upheaval"
"H. W. Brands celebrates Grant the warrior and Grant the president, too long maligned by an unholy alliance of snobs, racists, and partisan historians. A great American gets his full due."
--Richard Brookhiser, author of "James Madison
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"A skilled American storyteller reminds us of Grant's bravery and devotion on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War and as the president who rescued the martyred Lincoln's dream in the ugly seasons after the assassination. From the assault on Chapultepec to the carnage at Shiloh, from the Appomattox Court House to Grant's showdown as president with the Ku Klux Klan, the inestimable H. W. Brands tells the tale of this very human hero with the verve and insight we expect from a great biographer."
--John A. Farrell, author of Cla"rence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned "
"This authoritative biography of an obscure failure and occasional drunkard who became a Civil War generalissimo and the 18th U.S. president is a study in two kinds of moral courage . . . [Brands's] narrative of Grant's military campaigns in particular is lucid, colorful, and focused on telling moments of decision. His Grant emerges as an immensely appealin

Distinguished U.S. historian and pre-eminent biographer Brands leaves no stone unturned while providing listeners with both detailed historical information and intimate personal details of Grant's day-to-day duties, conflicts, and emotions. Listeners get to know the man whose family called him "U-less," learning about everything from his enduring love for his wife, Julia, to his uncanny ability to emerge unscathed from the bloodiest skirmishes. Brands infuses the narrative with contextual knowledge of the era including material on politics and the individuals Grant encounters along his journey through his presidency; the author's coverage is so deep that the book sometimes feels like a biography of 1800s America. Actor Stephen Hoye's smooth narration makes the 28 hours of content flow by quickly. VERDICT Because of its thorough dissection of its subject and his times, this is best for fans of history. ["This is a well-researched and comprehensive study...as well as an engaging book. Essential for both popular readers and scholars," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Doubleday hc, LJ 7/12.-Ed.]-Sean Kennedy, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.