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Follow on Google News | New Play Revisits “Forgotten” PresidentGrant may be due for an upgrade. Three recent books and now a new play feature a sympathetic view of the 18th president. Free Story from Ulysses S. Grant in China on Amazon.
By: Author Tom Durwood Free Story from Ulysses S. Grant in China - http://www.amazon.com/ Valley Forge, PA Presidential reputations are not fixed, but seem to always be in flux, moving up or down, depending on the times or the latest biography. As our own perspectives and our own values change, so does how we view the past. Harry Truman (more effective than we thought), Ike Eisenhower (prescient about the military-industrial complex), and John F. Kennedy (revealed to be no King Arthur) are all examples of presidents whose stock has changed. Is it now Ulysses S. Grant’s turn on the wheel? While he was ranked with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime, Grant has regularly appeared on the “worst presidents” list in the 20th century. Grant's two terms as president (1869 -1876) are generally regarded as undistinguished. Historians viewed his attempts to implement Reconstruction as failures, and the clouds of scandal over his tenure have never really lifted. An excellent soldier, Grant has been seen as an ineffective president. That he cared little about explaining himself has not helped his case. He may be due for an upgrade. Three recent books and now a new play feature a sympathetic view of the 18th president. Two short 2004 biographies and a longer 2009 book intend to shore up our understanding of Grant. In Josiah Bunting III’s Ulysses S. Grant: the 18th President, the author argues that Grant did in fact accomplish his single greatest goal of rebuilding the nation, blocking harsh punishments of the South and protecting rights of African Americans. Michael Korda’s book Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero is more of a psychological study, bringing out Grant’s strength of character during America’s darkest hours. UCLA History Professor Joan Waugh’s 2009 book U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth looks not only at the man and his record, but also at the cultural shifts that have contributed to his declining reputation. One of her conclusions is that Grant’s aura diminished as Robert E. Lee’s grew. “Only more recently have historians begun to appreciate Grant's commitment to African Americans,” states the Miller Center for Presidential History. “He fought to protect the rights of African Americans more than any other nineteenth-century President. He worked hard to ensure the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and tried to make it possible for blacks to vote.” Grant is increasingly understood as a good man caught in impossible historical forces. In his new play, “Ulysses S. Grant in China,” author Tom Durwood portrays Grant in a sympathetic light – protective of the young protagonists, earnest in his efforts to reach a fair resolution, respectful of his international colleagues, and keenly aware of the dangers of war. The play shows us Grant as he might have behaved in his adjudication of the dispute between Chinese Viceroy Li Hong Zhang and Japan’s expansionist young Emperor Meiji over the Ryukyu (“Loochoo”) In particular, the play imagines Grant lobbying to curb Japan’s aggressive Pacific strategy, an ambition that ultimately erupted in World War II. The play is included in the short-story collection “Ulysses S. Grant and Other Stories,” currently available on Kindle and on facebook (six of the stories are offered free). “The stories are nine parts adventure and one part history lesson,” says the author, warning that each one features treachery, fighting, poisoning, or other violence and death. Ulysses S. Grant in China on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/ Ulysses S. Grant in China on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/ Free Story from Ulysses S. Grant in China - http://www.amazon.com/ End
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