Abstract
In 1879 General William T. Sherman remarked that, although he had known Ulysses S. Grant for years, “to me he is a mystery, and I believe he is a mystery to himself.” Over the last quarter-century many authors have claimed to have solved or at least shed fresh light on the mystery of Grant. For the most part, they have portrayed Grant as a great general and good man, dissenting strongly with the highly negative portrayal of Grant contained in William S. McFeely’s 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning study. This essay traces the evolution of Grant scholarship since 1981 and suggests possible lines of inquiry for future Grant scholars.
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Cite this article
Ethan S. Rafuse, “Still a Mystery? General Grant and the Historians, 1981-2006,” The Journal of Military History 71, no. 3 (July 2007): 849–874.