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Crucible of Command book cover
Crucible of Command
Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee--The War They Fought, the Peace They Forged
2015
First Published
4.17
Average Rating
688
Number of Pages

A dual biography of two iconic leaders: how they fought a bloody, brutal war, and then forged a lasting peace that fundamentally changed our nation. They met in person only four times, yet these two men determined the outcome of the Civil War and cast competing styles for the reunited nation. Each the subject of innumerable biographies, Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee have never before been paired as they are here. Exploring their personalities, their character, and their ethical, moral, political, and military worlds, William C. Davis finds surprising similarities between the two men as well as new perspectives on how their lives prepared them for the war they fought and influenced how they fought it. Davis reveals Lee's sense of failure before the war, Grant's optimism during disaster, and the sophisticated social and political instincts that each had when waging a war between democracies.

Avg Rating
4.17
Number of Ratings
673
5 STARS
36%
4 STARS
47%
3 STARS
15%
2 STARS
1%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

William C. Davis
Author · 39 books

Currently professor of history at Virginia Tech, William C. Davis has written over fifty books, most about the American Civil War. He has won the Jefferson Davis Prize for southern history three times, the Jules F. Landry Award for Southern history once, and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. For several years, he was the editor of the magazine Civil War Times Illustrated. He has also served as a consultant on the A&E television series Civil War Journal. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

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