RaveThe Denver PostConfederate apologists, helped by some 19th-century historians, depicted Grant as a military butcher, a chronic drunk and a corrupt and failed president ... It’s a lie, and one that makes Ron Chernow’s voluminous biography, Grant, all the more important, especially in the context of a contemporary neo-Confederate revival on the political right ... Chernow definitively establishes that Grant was a great general — the military historian John Keegan once called him 'the towering genius of the Civil War' — a compassionate and honest man and possibly the most underrated U.S. president ... Chernow, biographer of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, doesn’t gloss over Grant’s deficiencies ... Despite the scandals that plagued his presidency, Grant produced important achievements, establishing respect for the U.S. around the world ... Trump doesn’t read books, but Chernow’s biography would have been a perfect Christmas present for him anyway.