Bestselling author Ronald White will be at La Cañada Presbyterian Church for a presentation and book signing on Sunday, March 26, at 4 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. White’s new presidential biography, “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant,” became an instant New York Times bestseller when it was published in October. The Flintridge Book Store will provide copies to purchase of American Ulysses, as well as the author’s “A. Lincoln: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln,” which White will sign.
In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the “Trinity of Great American Leaders.” But the battlefield commander–turned–commander-in-chief fell out of favor in the 20th century. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the 21st century.
His book is based on seven years of research with primary documents — some of them never examined by previous Grant scholars. White, a biographer skilled at writing momentous history from the inside out, shows Grant to be a generous, curious, introspective man and leader — a willing delegator with a natural gift for managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers. His wife, Julia Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record, emerges in her own right as a spirited and influential partner.
White is a Fellow at the Huntington Library and a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum of Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife, Cynthia, in La Cañada Flintridge.
For more information, visit lacanadapc.org.
