Unconditional Surrender: A Visit With Ulysses S Grant

Peter J Grady – Humanities Iowa Presenter

We meet Ulysses S Grant in the final year of his life, as he is dying of throat cancer (brought on, no doubt, by his habit of smoking 20 cigars a day). Grant is penniless. His investment firm has gone bankrupt, and as he resigned from the military to serve as President of the United States, he has no military pension. Grant has been assured by Samuel L Clemens that if Grant can complete his autobiography, the book will earn sufficient income to care for Grant’s family after his death. The one-hour show uses period music, photographs, cartoons, maps, and drawings to explore Grant’s successes and failures in military and civilian life and provides the audience with a new understanding of Ulysses S Grant, whom was called “The Man Who Saved the Union”.

Last modified: June 7, 2018