Books: Poor Politician

ULYSSES S. GRANT—William B. Hesseltine—Dodd, Mead ($4).

U. S. history contains few more provoking mysteries than the personality of Ulysses S. Grant, described by Henry Adams as "shy; jealous; sometimes vindictive; more or less dull in outward appearance; always needing stimulants." Grant was an easygoing, touchy, unimpressive soldier in his early career, later a devoted family man who failed with an almost uncanny thoroughness as a farmer, rent collector, store clerk, before he blossomed as the stolid genius of the Civil War. An essentially honest man who...

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