![[Abridged] Presidential Histories - 18.B.) The evolving myth and reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, an interview with Joan Waugh](https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/episode_images/6525cc0e1e417ed39f762f8124d08715bf80d60045828e7dbdde538ee5b7f9b9.avif)
18.B.) The evolving myth and reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, an interview with Joan Waugh
[Abridged] Presidential Histories
07/12/21
•50m
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Ulysses S. Grant's reputation has been through a lot. While he was still alive, he was very nearly our first three-term president; after he died, the Myth of the Lost Cause repainted him as a drunk and corrupt butcher; in the past 30 years, he's started to become a Civil Rights Icon as historians gave him a long overdue second look. Join me as I interview to Joan Waugh, UCLA professor of 19th-century America who specializes in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age, and the author of U.S. Grant, American Hero, American Myth on why Grant's reputation has changed so much, and what's still misunderstood about our 18th president.
Previous Episode
Ulysses S. Grant led an Odyssey of a life. From the battlefields of the Mexican-American War, to the get-rich-quick frontier of the California Gold Rush, to years of poverty in St. Louis, Grant was shaped by a dizzying array of diverse experiences. Join me as I interview Nick Sacco, a park ranger at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis and an author for The Journal of the Civil War Era, on the experiences that prepared Grant to win the Civil War and lead the nation through Reconstruction as our 18th President.
Next Episode
President Lincoln and General Grant formed one of the most successful president-general partnerships in American history, winning the Civil War and defeating the Confederacy. But before that partnership could turn to the challenge of reconstruction, Lincoln was assassinated, leaving the nation in the incapable hands of Andrew Johnson. Four years later, Grant was elected to pick up where Lincoln and left off and finish Lincoln's mission of healing the divided nation, and he'd lean on everything he'd learned from his late friend to attempt it.
Join me as I interview to Ron White, a New York Times best-selling author of presidential biographies, including his recently published Lincoln in Private, and American Ulysses: A life of Ulysses S. Grant, on the impactful friendship between Lincoln and Grant, and Grant's efforts honor Lincoln's legacy by rebuilding a better nation through reconstruction.
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