
[Abridged] Presidential Histories
From Yorktown to the Civil War, Pearl Harbor to 9/11, Abridged Presidential Histories explores the successes, setbacks, and scandals that define each president’s legacy, and then asks what lessons we can learn from them.
[Abridged] Presidential Histories
18.B.) The evolving myth and reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, an interview with Joan Waugh
Ulysses S. Grant's reputation has been through a lot. While he was still alive, he was very nearly our first three-term president; after he died, the Myth of the Lost Cause repainted him as a drunk and corrupt butcher; in the past 30 years, he's started to become a Civil Rights Icon as historians gave him a long overdue second look. Join me as I interview to Joan Waugh, UCLA professor of 19th-century America who specializes in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age, and the author of U.S. Grant, American Hero, American Myth on why Grant's reputation has changed so much, and what's still misunderstood about our 18th president.