Making Grant: The Peacekeeper

Fighting to uphold the promises of Reconstruction, Grant wins the presidency but finds politics is a very different game from war. His turbulent time in office will call Grant’s character into question and reshape his legacy for generations to come. 

Making Washington unpacks the founding father that has become more myth than man. This season, leading historians, authors and journalists explore the man whose first military command sparked a European war, whose impatience and arrogance on the battlefield led to tragedy, but wh ...  Show more

The Confederacy won the early battles of the Civil War, led by brilliant generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee (to name a few) against blundering Union commanders like the endlessly dithering George McClellan. The war only turned after Lincoln found the right generals such ...  Show more

December 11, 1862. Union Army engineers are urgently constructing a bridge, one that will carry soldiers into the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a Confederate stronghold. Union leaders are banking on the element of surprise and are desperate for a victory. But, by the time it’ ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of Grant's presidency on Americans in the years after the Civil War in which he, with Lincoln, had led the Union Army to victory. His predecessor, Andrew Johnson, was prepared to let the Southern States decide for themselves which rights ...  Show more

How does a heroic general of the Civil War become one of the lowest rated Presidents (at least until recently)?

To discuss Grant's commitment to reconstruction, civil rights, and the crushing of the Ku Klux Klan, Don is joined by Professor Anne Marshall. Anne is a hi ...