The generals--Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

Library Journal

Yet another recounting of the Grant-Lee saga, this told as a dual biography and based on both secondary sources and primary research. Well written and evocative, this will serve as a pleasant diversion for general readers. But it is lacking in analysis and will offer nothing new to many readers familiar with the Civil War. A better recent general history is Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones's How the North Won (Univ. of Illinois Pr., 1983), which also covers the roles of these generals. The Andersons' book is comparable to Gene Smith's Lee and Grant (LJ 6/1/84). Libraries with good holdings on the Civil War need not add this. Joseph G. Dawson III, Texas A&M Univ., College Station