U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth

Abstract

The rise of Civil War memory studies in recent years has rested largely on studies of groups-Union veterans, Confederate women, African Americans-or broad analyses of public attitudes. Joan Waugh's study of Ulysses S. Grant reveals that focusing on a single individual can generate equally important insights into how nineteenth-century Americans understood the Civil War. Waugh offers a cogent biography of the army man, general, president, and author, but her main concern is to relate Grant's experiences to popular impressions of him during his lifetime and after. Waugh's analysis explores how Americans constructed the meaning of the Civil War, how they chose to represent that meaning (in statues and ritual), and how the meaning changed over time. In particular, Waugh shows how northerners celebrated Grant's central role in sustaining the Union even as they applauded his efforts to reunite the sections.