I just finished Ron Chernow’s doorstopper biography of Ulysses S. Grant, the much-anticipated followup to Chernow’s Hamilton bio, which became the improbable source material for a hit musical. Clocking in at over 1,000 pages, Chernow’s latest is good winter holiday beach reading, if for no other reason than the hardcover edition weighs enough to stun a flesh-crazed tiger shark.
Grant’s was a life lived in many acts: Soldier. Drunk. Failed businessman. Drunk. General. Drunk. President. Failed businessman again. Tomb.
Grant was also the first US president to visit China.