Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction
Compelling ... This makes for gruesome reading ... Packed with detail; in some places Mr. Bordewich might have provided more context and slowed the pace ... Certainly Mr. Bordewich presents a convincing case that, left to their own devices, Southern whites were not about to confer real freedom on the freedmen. He is equally persuasive that by the end of Grant’s second term, Northerners were unwilling to commit the guns to police the South, much less the butter to rebuild it.
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A vivid and sobering account of Grant’s efforts to crush the Klan in the South ... For the most part, Bordewich’s narrative hews closely to the historical period, showing how federal power was the only way to stamp out local regimes that countenanced the suffering of Black people while allowing white perpetrators to go unpunished ... Toward the end of the book, Bordewich gestures toward the fractured political landscape of the present day. Grant’s victory over the Klan is a story that many Americans would like to tell themselves, but the retrenchment that followed is a cautionary tale.
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A longtime chronicler of American history, Bordewich now aims to correct what he sees as an unfair portrayal of Grant: a great general but a poor president. In his view, Grant showed rare courage and determination to prosecute the Klan to the fullest possible extent.
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