Particularly the cochair mr. David rubenstein. You can become a donor or sponsor for the festival. The instructions for donations or in your program. Also, on your phone app and online. Before we begin, just a few announcements. If you have your cell phone, turn them off and at the conclusion of the program, we will be taking questions from the audience at one of the microphones. This afternoon, it is a distinct pleasure of mine to be joined onstage by doctor ronald whyte, the author of american ulysses. Previously, hes written many books on Abraham Lincoln, on lincolns leadership and also on the rhetoric. But today, we are going to talk about ulysses s. Grant. If you have not read the book yet, i can commend it to you. It is 827 pages. I was telling him before hand, i read through all 827 pages, and you do not hear about very often. That very often. Given the recent conversations about the legacy of the civil war, i cant think of a better person to hear from this afternoon at the National Book festival. So, as i said in your biography, you spent years working on Abraham Lincoln was most recently, you spent seven years working on grant. So, can you tell us why the switch from lincoln to grant . I give my editor of the credit. The credit. We were approaching the 150th commemoration of the civil war. He said youve written on lincoln, dont you think that grant is due for an upgrade. [laughter] there you go. We are going to talk about grants today. Who would have thought in his early life, for example, how and why did he come to west played . I wanted to emphasize the earlier life as important, but publishers are pushing to publish the biographies of many of skip quickly over the years. I like that grant says. The reason i do not read biographies a is they do not tel the story of the boyda becomes the man, what he calls the formative period of life. 16, 18, 22 years of age. With how important that was. So, the traditional biography skipped over west point too quickly. So i spent a week at west point. A week ago tuesday i gave a conversation, because i think that is so important in his life. 115 pounds, 17yearsold, he arrives at west point and it is formative in shaping who he becomes. Host one of the contributions in your biography is that you focus on his relationship with his wife, julia. You quote a love o in one of hes back and forth to each other. What does that bring to your treatment of grant and other biographers . I came to believe julia had been marginalized too often. Thats the story of the women in these biographies. She kept all the grand letters. What i wrote in Southern California and the friend that is in a movie industry approached me and said this would make a Great Television miniseries. He said tell me some of the most important things you can about grants. I said i want to tell you about the marriage between ulysses and juliet. What a wonderful marriage. Then i noticed a frown on his face and he said that will never do. What do you mean . Its all based on internal tension. So i sent him the first few chapters and he said dont you see the internal tension, they were strongly antislavery. Her father owned 30 slaves. Krantz family wouldnt come to the wedding because he was marrying into a slaveholding family. Julias father gave them slaves as a gift. So people think it is only the two of them, but grant had to figure out how he was going to navigate a marriage with a a father and both have such different views than his own. But at the end of their life in the white house people would come upon them now Holding Hands like bashful lovers. They did have one of the Great American marriages. Grant served as a quartermaster in the mexican war. Do we see any signs in this period . In this perspective, they took them out of active duty and sometimes broke through that and didnt participate officially in the daring episode in the war with mexico and water a. I think that he had qualities of leadership and general taylor picked him to be a quartermaster because he sold the ability to organize and think about the fact you have to supply an army and a very difficult terrain. This would come to the floor later on. On. Krantz didnt see it at the time that he had to supply the army often marching where theres no supply linthere is nosupply line battle of vicksburg. He had a problem with alcohol. He was an alcoholic. And you do treat and discuss this in the book about how he departs the army in the first departure and the arm in the are first instance. But then in the remainder of the book, but simply goes away. There is not an emphasis on grant being an alcoholic or having a problem with alcohol. Do you think that is a popular misconception of grant and can you comment on that . I think grant did drink. I do not think that he was an alcoholic. When he was in the Pacific Coast away from julia and the second child that he had never seen come he fell into drinking. I am convinced he did. But there was mixed. People give different reports. When julia was with him he did not drink. As he moved forward into his adult life, the drinking fell by the wayside. But it was a way that his comrades would try to put him down. He had this rise and they kept the story that he was a drunkard. One of the most surprising element of the book i could not believe it and i almost dropped the book. With for a brief moment in time, grant was a slave owner. Can you tell us how that came to pass and how he swears this with his abolitionist father. It was given to him by his fatherinlaw and if one is fortunate enough to visit fee park service site near st. Louis the film begins with the story grand characteristic we never talks about it. He had almost no money and they could have brought him a thousand dollars which was a lot of money in those days. They couldnt spare any longer to be a slave holder. When the civil war breaks out, grant is working for his fathers store in illinois. Why does he decide to rejoin the military in the union . Hes the only west point graduate into the first letter he writes is for rhetoric. He says i am a patron and there is no question this becomes a more difficult part of the story. Held a grand key goal for change in the civil war and put characteristic or characteristics do we see in grand that demonstrates why he is so successful . He has but ive called weeken lt qualities. They begin to come to the surface when he meets people across the panama. He steps forward to supervise men, women and children. I think if i were to give it a word it would be the word determination. When he finally assumes command of all of the union forces that enter into virginia and its stuck in this terrible place called wilderness, he said he would have been back on the other side back towards washington, d. C. It is grants capacity that wins the determination. A another special relationship that you talk about is the relationship between lincoln and grant. How and why did you think that he was able to recognize this tenacity when others did not see it . He made a habit of visiting his generals and he couldnt do that with grant because grant was in the west. But he saw from a distance a western man not presumptuous, not asking for too much, not complaining. The funny story is they heard he was drinking and they said lets find out what he was drinking and they did that to all the other generals. [laughter] so they sound kind of a relationship of mutual admiration. In fact its kind of funny he says to grant dot toning your plan. I cant keep secrets. I trust your plan. Carry them out and i will support you. You do a terrific job in the book talking about the military campaign into someone like myself not a military historian, to understand the campaign as you enclosed in the book. You cant talk about all the battles but i wonder if you can talk about the story after the battle of the bulge or miss. So this is in may of 1864. Grant comes through a very momentous decision, a crosswords even. Can you tell us about that and how that affects the continued prosecution of the war. He had come to lead the eastern army and they were suspicious of grant. Hed been successful but never faced bobby lee. So she assumes command and they are not so sure that hes up to the task. He enters into the wilderness that is a force about four or 5 feet tall where suddenly he realizes that his cavalry of forces isnt in effect. He didnt use the term friendly fire began to take place and they lose their position and shoot at each other and the forest catches fire and then they begin t their burned to deh and they shoot themselves before the fire suffocates. So they suffered a team thousand casualties and the general arrives at the camp and since i know robert e. Lee. If hes going to do this, that and the other, he is a quiet man and he rises up and says im tired of hearing what robert e. Lee is going to do. Some of you think hes going to do a double double somersault. Hes going to march the next evening but do not get the word out. Grant comes down this remarkable road 8 30 at night riding a horse and the troops are gathered around. He comes to a junction and turns north to retrieve back towards washington oracle turns out. We have an artist there that evening and he describes what happened. And grant gets to the junction and turns south. They throw their heads in the air and begin to sing arent we glad to get out of the wilderness. Thats the moment grant one the command and th into the respecte disunion army. It is a terrific story and great place in the book to sta start. Fast forwarding to grants political career, in some ways it is in a negative light. You talk about the scandals in the president ial administration. You dont shy away from death. But you have a different treatment of it because weve included a chapter about his views on the indian policies and also on the ku klux klan. I wonder, you include those chapters in the book to try to give a more holistic view of the political career perhaps than some of the preconceptions of the scandal ridden in the presidency. Many of the biographies were treated as a civil general and in some ways moved over the presidency. The scandals took place in the second term and my conviction became that the second term unfortunately began to define those terms. So, what about terms. Inaugural address in the 1869 for the first time an american president says we must address this question. We treated the indians a morally. Granted out campaign, but he went west all the way to denver and came back with a Record Mission the real problem is not the indians commits the settlers. Now it is both against sheridan and sherman. Against his own army colleagues. He calls a meeting of all of the leaders of the christian church. Churches to say we must put in place a new policy for the treatment of him. I was surprised by what he did with the ku klux klan. Into his own hands this labor be positioned as the Republican Party was retrieving the reconstruction, grant steps forward to defend the rights of the africanamericans. Voter suppression was alive then and now. The Voter Suppression was perpetrated by the ku klux klan in the lives of democratic party. They want to africanamericans not to vote. We think about obama is the first president elected with a nonwhite majority. Not so. He won the electoral vote but not the popular vote because 400,000 africanamericans voted for him. So they wanted to stop them because they knew they would vote overwhelmingly for republicans. So one of the most exciting stories as i think that grant was the last president to stand up for africanamericans until john f. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines johnson. Africanamericans knew this and they rallied to him. Frederick douglass was a tremendous campaigner for ulysses s. Grant and believed in him. The last question. After i finished the book, and it is as i said before terrifically wellwritten and researched. I finished the book and i felt as though grant was a little bit elusive. I couldnt figure out what made him tick. But i read your book at you spent yearand youspent years red thinking about grant so i want to ask is grant still elusive to you or do you feel like you do understand. I think the focus on what a person data. The person did. I thought i knew about grant. When i started the biography after about a year i came to my own conclusion i dont really know the man. And bend words the end of the book i come to this conclusion. There wasnt that terminology in this century susan kane wrote this wonderful book in which she argues extroverts when our society. So he wasnt a good public speaker or expert. If i had one phrase to call upon i would call it the moral courage. Most people do not know very much about ulysses s. Grant. The man of middle height accompanied by a young boy arrived at the crowded Ohio Railroad station in washington on a cold crisp morning marc march 81864 he asked the driver to take them to the hotel and at the northwest corner and pennsylvania avenue and 14th street only two blocks from the white house they stepped from the carriage and walked directly to the front desk. The man 42yearsold and wearing a travel duster asked for a room. He said did not the visitor know in wartime washington, few rooms were available. On the top floor would be fine, the man said softly. U. S. Grant andsign in illinois, he turned tail. General grant, why didnt you tell me who you were. Looking closely they could see underneath the duster was the blue uniform of the union officer. Grants typically almost always wore a uniform, never a generals uniform. He was reassigning them to parlor suites the best in the hotel. Now that he knew who was standing in front of him, he grabbed a sealed envelope, the general invited president clinton to the reception that evening at the white house as the guest of honor. Because he hadnt served in the Eastern Theater of the civil war, curiosity about grant punctuated the conversation everywhere. Many in the outline of his rising of things but still, they wondered out loud who was he in hell did they succeed over the past years. Why had the president of the faded into the position of Lieutenant General to first man since George Washington to hold a rank why he had lincoln picked him to come from the western theater to lead all of the union armies . Humility and modesty are not invoked today. [laughter] this is the story of a man that is humbled, selfeffacing guy didnt say a modern celebritiess would say dont you know who i am. Grants would never have said that. He simply accepted the room at the top floor of the hotel. I thought this is the best way to introduce it. [applause] we will alternate and start over here. Thank you. Very interesting presentation. I would like you to comment on two different tactics if he wi will. Number one, the first time in American History where it was the territories under his control. So that is one aspect. Second, the personality. He was bankrupt with a tremendous debt yet the obligation where he insisted in paying back all of it rather than the extent of the sword to do so. Thank you for both questions. Order number 11, december 1862 grant is very concerned that people in washington do not understand they are allowing the treaty to take place which is benefiting and many of the traders are jewish. So they are promulgating the order to stop the jewish traders end of thi that this will be red to as the awful order. Are they willing and able to admit their mistakes and learn from them and the jewish author suggests grant did recognize the mistakes that he had made and when you continue the story he would have appointed more to the administration by far than anyone else if he became a great friend of the community and if he were present by invitation at the first Jewish Synagogue in washington to be recognized and make amends for it he felt terrible for what he had done. He changed his whole attitude as a result of that. He told his father to stop this. What am i doing. The next storytime at the end of his life there was a president ial tension he made some money so he invested it in his wall street firm. His son was a partner and the other was involved in a ponzi scheme. A particular day in 1864, he came to wall street to learn he lost every penny. He went home and had 81 to his name. This is why people end up writing his memoirs which he did not want to do because he had to find a way to provide for julia after his death. He was dying of cancer when he started writing his memoirs. You stressed the importance of the formative years. Would you be able to compare the experience of west point and this is a war for patriotism versus traders and then the issue of mrs. Jefferson to give a dissertation. Thank you for that question. The only graduate they were of a different generation. We graduated almost 20 years before grant. Grant didnt do so well at west point. He was 21st out of 39. He said i must apologize. I thought wow why did he apologize. West point was an engineering school. The language was french, all of the literature coming out of the war was french and the grant said i spend my time reading novels. So i looked in the records of the time and there were no novels. They were the sitcoms of the day. And as a strict methodist, that was his christian upbringing and there would have been but i think great writers are great readers and i wanted to find out what the tv. He tells us what he read and that became the key to me that he was the first intellectual curiosity of imagination and his reading was the key to understanding who he became. If grant was alive right now, what do you think that he would say. [laughter] [applause] that is a good question. He went down to springfield to see if he might find a position in the union army, and he wrote to his father innocent and is l never participate in the kind of trading and the ambition that these military officers are in. That is not who i am. When he wrote sherman after being president he said i was forced into this in spite of myself. We need more humility and modesty. We need the ability to say i was wrong. I made a mistake. I am willing to change. That is the vision that i think he helps us to see. Being a career teacher associated in history, we discusdiscussed the president on and grant and warren g. Harding in terms of the worst president and like you said in the second term. My question is in terms of the reconstruction policy during the two terms, what kind of success and failure did he have in the context of the whole range of the construction and how he tried to help empower those after the civil war and they were not having that. Thank you. Grant is actually rising. I participated for the first time in the president ial survey. He was the third survey of the century and each of the surveys grant is