Grant biography review

It’s a safe bet that Ron Chernow’s monumental new biography, Grant (Penguin Press, pp., ***½ out of four stars), won’t inspire a rapping, rocking Broadway juggernaut the way his earlier best seller, Alexander Hamilton, did.

But just as no one could have predicted Hamilton’s pop trajectory, Chernow’s deep dive on Ulysses S.

Grant may defy the odds — just as the Union’s Civil War general and our 18th president overcame his humble origins, inward personality, the demons of drink and scandal to emerge an American paragon. Or, as Walt Whitman described him, “nothing heroic … and yet the greatest hero.”

Grant’s ultimate heroic status has been a hard-fought matter for historians.

Long before he found glory as Abraham Lincoln’s military savior, he had resigned from the Army amid accusations of drunkenness that dogged him throughout his career and presidency.

Chernow’s exhaustive research and nuanced assess