Grant

[Simon]

Posting out of curiosity and a desire to read a bit outside of my somewhat known "bubble":  what do folks think of the History Channel's Grant miniseries?  

 

I'm in the town that he (and 8 other generals) called home both before and after the Civil War (aka locally The War of the Rebellion), so our perspective on things is slightly skewed.  That said, I thought the series did an admirable job of showing a man who was trying to do good but (at times) betrayed by his belief that others were equally as good/just...which is to say, a good person (and an arguably brilliant general for his time), but not the greatest of politicians.

Curious to hear other takes.

[slikmar]

Hmm, makes me wonder if Martin based Ned Stark on him, who had the stupidest death based on trusting people to be as noble and honorable as him despite all the evidence to the contrary.

[Old Man]

I only caught about ten minutes of this while flipping channels, but those ten minutes seemed to be well produced and treated Grant fairly. 
 

My own impression of Grant is that he wasn’t sociopathic enough. He was a brilliant commander who gave his incompetent subordinates too many opportunities to fail him, which they took full advantage of. He was just awful at politics. 

[Simon]

1 hour ago, slikmar said:

Hmm, makes me wonder if Martin based Ned Stark on him, who had the stupidest death based on trusting people to be as noble and honorable as him despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Considering that he spent a fair bit of time living in Dubuque, Iowa (the origin of "Winter is Coming"), I wouldn't be surprised...

[Simon]

1 minute ago, Old Man said:

I only caught about ten minutes of this while flipping channels, but those ten minutes seemed to be well produced and treated Grant fairly. 
 

My own impression of Grant is that he wasn’t sociopathic enough. He was a brilliant commander who gave his incompetent subordinates too many opportunities to fail him, which they took full advantage of. He was just awful at politics. 

I would agree with awful at politics...the rest I think may be too dogmatic.  He certainly leaned in that direction, but I don't think it was as cut and dry as all that...

[megaplayboy]

3 hours ago, Old Man said:

I only caught about ten minutes of this while flipping channels, but those ten minutes seemed to be well produced and treated Grant fairly. 
 

My own impression of Grant is that he wasn’t sociopathic enough. He was a brilliant commander who gave his incompetent subordinates too many opportunities to fail him, which they took full advantage of. He was just awful at politics. 

And yet I'd still peg him as among the five best Republican presidents in US history.  

 

(which might also say something about most of the field of competitors...)

 

To the extent that there was a Reconstruction Era, Grant was president while most of it was happening, and that's to his credit that he didn't abandon the project.  It's to the detriment of the 19th Century GOP that they were willing to abandon it in 1876 in order to hold onto the presidency...

[Trencher]

Grant is generally seen as a heroic figure over here. And personally I think of him as a hero of his time and also the first modern general. 

[Old Man]

9 hours ago, Simon said:

I would agree with awful at politics...the rest I think may be too dogmatic.  He certainly leaned in that direction, but I don't think it was as cut and dry as all that...

I thought for sure my three sentence analysis would have covered every nuance of the man and his career.