Saw final segment of Grant last night,

[elleng]

on History channel, and the coincidence of that with events in Minneapolis bring me to this conclusion: It is who 'we' are, and likely never to 'go away.'

[RDANGELO]

1. He is a mostly forgotten hero.

[Eko]

2. One of my favorite presidents

And my favorite General.

[captain queeg]

3. My brother got me a book about him a couple years ago

Because I like to read about war history. The book was very dense and never even got to the civil war by the time I gave up. But like many old time leaders he was very educated and wrote all sorts of stuff. I’m reading a book about Churchill right now. What a difference some of these old guys compared to modern politicians. How has it come to be that a man like trump is the president? It doesn’t bode well for the future of mankind.

[CatWoman]

4. Ellen, we need to discuss this.

big K & R

[elleng]

5. Thanks, Cat.

[CatWoman]

14. I watched it too and came away in such a sense of awe regarding Grant

he was truly a man ahead of his time.



I had so much to say but I'm drunk now. LOL

Will revisit this thread tomorrow.

[elleng]

15. Thanks. 'See' you tomorrow,

with all the crap that's happening, looking/feeling more and more like Wilderness and Petersburg.

[peggysue2]

6. I watched the series on Grant

It was the History Channel actually doing history! Surprising.

Well done docudrama, I thought, and a stinging reminder that the issues Grant faced are still alive--the racial divide, the hatred, the lost opportunities. At the end, we're also reminded that though the Union won the war, the narrative for peace, a lasting peace was ceded to the Confederate sympathizers, so much so that Grant becomes forgotten as the 'savior of the Nation', a man who really believed in reconstruction and civil rights and Lee is elevated to near sainthood levels as the Leader of the romanticized Lost Cause. Instead of the issue of slavery spearheading the war, the history is rewritten as a battle for states' rights and independence. As for Grant? His reputation is deliberately whittled away by rumor and propaganda: He was a butcher, a drinker, a greedy crook.

Everything that is old is new again!

Something I did not realize was during that period, Grant was the most famous and celebrated American around the globe. His world tour after eight years in the White House had people lining the streets, cheering him, hoping to catch a glimpse. And then a very sad end. From hardscrabble beginnings back to a hardscrabble finish. The only thing saving his family from penury was the completion of his memoirs. He died three days later.

It was a good presentation about a complex man during an age of enormous turmoil and crises. We could use a Ulysses S. Grant today.

[CatWoman]

8. that's why we have all those idiotic confederate monuments here in the South

as the South was able to rewrite history.

I wish Sherman's ghost would come back and torch every last one of them.

[roamer65]

7. We could use a Kennedy right now.

Or A Grant, too.

[elleng]

9. May very well need a Grant to lead us through next civil war.

Wish I could think of such a capable strategist and tactician for today.

[roamer65]

10. Dump steals office and I am a separatist.

I am a Michigander before I am an American.

[elleng]

11. I'm a New Yorker living in Maryland,

one daughter + 2 grands here, one daughter + 2 grands in N.J. Where to go?

[roamer65]

12. I have no idea.

Guess we are nearing uncharted territory.

[canetoad]

13. I often ponder the history and orgins of both our countries

Broadly, both relatively young in the scheme of things; the USA is 150 or 200 years ahead of Australia in settlement and federation.

Our first white settlers were either convicts, military or squatters - free immigrants who 'squatted' on a swathe of land. Yours were persecuted religious minorities and folk seeking their fortune.

We retained a connection to Britain, you severed yours. Our countries are a similar size in area; yours has much more arable land than ours. We are both countries that embrace democracy.

How did our spirits, our essence diverge so much?

[Retrograde]

16. Large parts of the US were never British colonies

The southwest was Spanish, and then Mexican. Much of the central part of the country was French (or Spanish or French, depending on when you look). Hawai'i was an independent country. Most of the present inhabitants are not descended from the early British settlers: there were waves of immigration from other places: Ireland and Germany in the 1840s, eastern and southern Europe in the 1900s, Latin Americans and Asians later on. But we still hold to this "British heritage" myth, and the notion that the settlement of the 1st 13 states was the template for everything.

FWIW, there's a building in Santa Fe that's been a government building since 1608 - before the British starved at Jamestown. And there are towns in that state that pre-date Columbus.

[neverforget]

17. It was a very well done documentary.

It really pisses me off that the Lost Cause Losers got to write the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Grant was a great general and a good president who had his heart in the right place.

And the fact that he spent his dying days writing his memoirs so his family wouldn't be in poverty is noble.