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Résumé
Résumé
From the #1 bestselling author and anchor of Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier comes a riveting reassessment of Ulysses S. Grant, arguing that the great Civil War commander's battle to save the Union continued to the very end of his presidency when a crisis threatened to fracture the still fragile nation once again.
In this follow-up to his acclaimed "Three Days" trilogy, Bret Baier's To Rescue the Republic dramatically illuminates the life of one of America's most consequential yet misunderstood leaders, Ulysses S. Grant, whose actions both as general and as president played an unparalleled role in preserving the United States.
Born a tanner's son in rugged Ohio in 1822 and battle-tested by the Mexican American War, Grant met his destiny on the bloody fields of the Civil War. His daring and resolve as a general gained the attention of President Lincoln, then desperate for bold leadership. Lincoln appointed Grant as Lieutenant General of the Union Army in March 1864. Within a year, Grant's forces had seized Richmond and forced Robert E. Lee to surrender.
Four years later, the reunified nation faced another leadership void after Lincoln's assassination and an unworthy successor completed his term. Again, Grant answered the call. At stake once more was the future of the Union, for though the Southern states had been defeated, it remained to be seen if the former Confederacy could be reintegrated into the country--and if the Union could ensure the rights and welfare of African Americans in the South. Grant met the challenge by boldly advancing an agenda of Reconstruction and aggressively countering the Ku Klux Klan.
In his final weeks in the White House, however, Grant faced a crisis that threatened to undo his life's work. The contested presidential election of 1876 produced no clear victory for either Republican Rutherford B. Hayes or Democrat Samuel Tilden, who carried most of the former Confederacy. Soon Southern states vowed to revolt if Tilden was not declared the victor. Grant was determined to use his influence to preserve the Union, establishing an electoral commission to peaceably settle the issue. Grant brokered a grand bargain: the installation of Republican Hayes to the presidency, with concessions to the Democrats that effectively ended Reconstruction. This painful compromise saved the nation, but tragically condemned the South to another century of civil-rights oppression.
Deep with contemporary resonance and brimming with fresh detail that takes readers from the battlefields of the Civil War to the corridors of power where men decided the fate of the nation in back rooms, To Rescue the Republic reveals Grant, for all his complexity, to be among the first rank of American heroes.
Critiques (3)
Critique du Publishers Weekly
Fox News anchor Baier (Three Days at the Brink) paints a flattering portrait of Ulysses S. Grant in this breezy revisionist history. Drawing analogies to today's partisan discord, Baier focuses on "Grant's resolve and heroism in times of unparalleled turmoil," including his command of the Union Army during the Civil War; his two-term presidency (1868--1876), which encompassed the most hard-fought years of Reconstruction; and his controversial brokering of a "grand bargain" in the contested 1876 election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. Baier claims that "we are so accustomed to dwelling on the failures of Reconstruction that we often overlook its successes," including the 15th Amendment, which Grant helped push through in 1870, the election of the first Black U.S. senators, and the passage of the Enforcement Act, which Grant argued was necessary to curb racist violence in the South. Baier also refutes critics who fault Grant for supporting the withdrawal of federal troops from the South by claiming that Democrats and Republicans "were ready to give the Southern states a chance to do the right thing on their own," and that "it's unclear what more could have been done... short of permanent military occupation." Though many readers will disagree with that assessment, Baier succeeds in humanizing Grant and clarifying the complex factors behind his decision-making. This is an accessible and nuanced introduction to an oft-misunderstood figure American history. (Oct.)
Critique de Kirkus
The latest book of pop history from the chief political anchor for Fox News. The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which Baier witnessed in his capacity as a political reporter and anchor, gave new meaning to the turmoil surrounding the 1876 presidential election. In this conventional biography of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) designed for general readers who have not studied the era, the election occupies only 50 pages near the end. A mediocre West Point cadet, Grant achieved little glory in the Mexican-American War, resigned his commission, and struggled to earn a living. The beginning of the Civil War found him clerking in a leather goods shop and farming. The only West Point graduate in the area, he was chosen to lead local units; after six months of intense activity against minor Confederate posts and lobbying by his congressman, a friend of Lincoln, Grant became a general. He turned out to be the most aggressive and imaginative Union commander. A national idol after Appomattox in 1865, he easily won presidential elections in 1868 and 1872. Recent historians have upgraded his performance in office, but Baier holds the traditional view that Grant was an honorable man but a poor politician surrounded by scoundrels. Scandals occurred regularly, and his final months in office were preoccupied by the mess following the 1876 election, which saw a closely contested battle that the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, barely won. As in his previous books on FDR, Eisenhower, and Reagan, Baier relies heavily on other biographies, including Ron Chernow's superior Grant (2017), and Grant's own memoirs, a straightforward and plainspoken history. Throughout, the author can't resist the use of invented dialogue and conjectures of historical figures' inner thoughts, but he gets the facts right. Better Grant biographies are not in short supply; readers should seek them out instead of this one. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Critique de Booklist
Until recently, historians have tended to focus on the rampant corruption that took place during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. Famed as a war hero who wasn't deeply politically ambitious, Grant was an ideal candidate to succeed the tumultuous administration of the impeached Andrew Johnson. Baier (Three Days at the Brink, 2020) surveys Grant's life from his Midwestern origins through his undistinguished West Point education, his military successes leading Union forces, and his 1868 elevation to the Presidency. But, Baier argues, Grant's greatest political contribution was in his mediation of the disputed election of 1876 to choose his successor. Electoral results proving inconclusive, Grant proposed a commission to settle the election. Republican Rutherford Hayes was declared the election's victor, but at the cost of withdrawal of Federal troops from the South, leaving the formerly enslaved population at the mercy of its old enslavers and commencing Jim Crow segregation. Baier finds parallels to contemporary politics in this, which makes his account all the more compelling.
