The seminal biography of one of America's towering, enigmatic figures. From his boyhood in Ohio to the battlefields of the Civil War and his presidency during the crucial years of Reconstruction, this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography traces the entire arc of Grant's life (1822-1885). A moving and convincing portrait....profound understanding of the man as well as his period and his country.--C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books Clearsightedness, along with McFeely's unfailing intelligence and his existential sympathy...informs his entire biography.--Justin Kaplan, The New Republic