U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (Civil War America) (repost)
U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (Civil War America) By Joan Waugh
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press 2009 | 384 Pages | ISBN: 0807833177 | PDF | 10 MB
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press 2009 | 384 Pages | ISBN: 0807833177 | PDF | 10 MB
How does national memory determine national heroes? Waugh, a UCLA history professor, probes the subject in an engaging study of the making of Ulysses S. Grant's reputation. At the time of his death in 1885, he was perceived as on a level with George Washington by former Unionists and Confederates alike. His memoirs were a bestseller. His image combined the honorable soldier and the generous victor: a heroic war leader who believed in the ideal of national reconciliation in both regional and racial contexts. Even Grant's flaws were part of his greatness, linking him to his countrymen in a distinctively American fashion. That image began to change as lost cause romanticism nurtured reinterpreting the Civil War as not merely tragic but arguably unnecessary.