EP 220: Ron Chernow on Redeeming Ulysses S. Grant
Pulitzer-winning author/historian Ron Chernow (Alexander Hamilton, Washington: A Life) wants Americans to rethink the 18th President with his new biography GRANT. He discusses Ulysses S. Grant’s drinking and early failures, his meteoric rise through the ranks during the Civil War, and how Grant struggled with his own personal civil war at home. He makes the case for General Grant as a brilliant military strategist, and argues that he deserves more credit for holding the Union together during Reconstruction. We discuss how Ulysses S. Grant later went broke when he trusted his fortune to the Bernie Madoff of his day and how Mark Twain helped the former President dig himself out of debt before suffering a painful death by throat cancer.
