Biographies of Grant are by no means rare. But Brooks D. Simpson has managed to make a solid contribution. The book opens with rather more detail on his pre-war “career” than is normally the case, and takes a good look at the reasoning behind some of Grant’s wartime plans. There is, for example, an interesting aside on Grant’s thought on a campaign in North Carolina. The book is by no means hagiographic, and can be quite critical as necessary. And if it doesn’t drive a stake through the heart of the “Grant the drunkard” myth, nothing else ever will.