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Abraham Lincoln, biographies, book reviews, Brian Holden Reid, Ulysses Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman
The Scourge of War:
The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman
by Brian Holden Reid
640 pages
Oxford University Press
Published: June 2020
Brian Holden Reid’s “The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman” was published earlier this year. Reid is currently Visiting Professor of American History and Military Institutions at King’s College London and is a recent recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for contributions to military history. He has written a half-dozen books including “Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation.”
Anyone reading about Abraham Lincoln or Ulysses Grant will invariably encounter an irresistibly interesting character: William Tecumseh Sherman. I knew in early 2014 (when I read a dozen biographies of Lincoln) that I owed it to myself to read a book dedicated to William Sherman…
See the full review at:
www.thebestbiographies.com
My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies 
I would love to know how you would rank the presidents. Any possibility you might decide to do so?
Oh my – what an intriguing can of worms!
Yes, I’m considering how and whether to embark on such an adventure. The complexities are almost endless, but it would be so intellectually interesting. I’m still pondering the notion…
That’s a really treacherous enterprise. Greatness rankings based on popular opinion are worthless, and even academic polls are chock-full of ideological bias. There are some books that take a stab at it, but…… You have to work hard to be utterly transparent about your criteria and judgment calls, and even then you’ll likely annoy half your readership. Finally, rankings usually assume that all presidents are created equal, with equal opportunity for greatness or failure, and that’s simply not true. Change Lincoln from 1860 to 1872, and he’s NOT the great president we know, because the times did not require greatness. Put FDR into the presidency in 1921 and he’s NOT Dr. New Deal. Reagan in 1976 would not be what Reagan was in 1980. You’re right — the complexities are almost endless.
Indeed, it reminds me of multivariable calculus – too many things going on at once, too hard to isolate the impact of individual variables, virtually impossible to examine things on an apples-to-apples basis.
When I try to imagine how one could fairly perform a ranking of the presidents a basic starting point for me is that one must compare performance of the person in the context of their time and the challenges they faced. This, of course, could result in a remarkably odd outcome as it might be reasonably concluded that Chester Arthur did an comparatively admirable job given the circumstances he was plopped into or that Herbert Hoover wasn’t actually all *that* bad given the fact it practically took a world war to extricate the economy from the depression. And what would an audience conclude if the analysis showed John Adams toward the very bottom of the list with John Tyler floating in the middle?
Also fascinating, but no less perplexing, is the question you touched on of how various presidents would have performed under different circumstances: Lincoln four years earlier, Truman four years later, Ronald Reagan at the outbreak of WWI, Teddy Roosevelt during the onset of the Great Depression,…
All I conclude is that “great presidents” clearly are the product of the right person with the right instincts and talents in the right place at the right time. The person meets the moment…
That has to be one of the best comments I have ever read. You had it at multi-variable calculus!
Indeed. Two epigrams I used in my own book: Shakespeare — “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘me.” And from Admiral Bull Halsey: “There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.” And Ecclesiastes 9:11. I’m not sure Halsey is always right, but he’s more often right than not.
Hello, love your blog! It helped me choose which presidential bios to buy. What are the presidents you feel don’t have definitive bios yet (excluding the more recent ones).
I sure would like definitive bios of Grover Cleveland and Harding.
It’s a tough question only made easier if I re-word part of your question from “definitive” to “go-to.” And on that list I might include Van Buren, Wm Henry Harrison, Taylor (though I haven’t read Hamilton’s series yet), possibly Andrew Johnson, arguably Wm Howard Taft, Harding,…? I think Brodsky’s biography of Cleveland was surprisingly good though it could certainly be improved upon. I’m always excited when I hear about an author who decides to improve upon fine, but imperfect, earlier presidential biographies and I think there are *numerous* presidents whose “best” biography leaves enough room for improvement by future biographers.