Like no one else writing in America today, Max Byrd, the critically acclaimed author of Jefferson and Jackson , makes history come alive. His latest work is an unforgettable portrait of America's Gilded Age and the flawed, iron-willed, mysterious giant at its center who may well be our most uniquely American hero.

Ulysses S. Grant pursued a tragic war to its very end, winning a decisive victory for the North. But his final battle begins in 1880, when he loses his race to become the first U.S. President to serve three terms, goes bankrupt, and begins a fight against cancer that will conquer the conquering hero.

In this stunning portrayal of a man and a nation, Max Byrd carries us from the troubled drawing room of Grant's sworn enemy Henry Adams and his doomed wife Clover, into the tempestuous Chicago convention halls. We meet the old soldiers Sherman and Sheridan, and the always clever, always scheming Mark Twain, the comic gadfly with a fatal business sense.

Grant not only penetrates the secrets of our elusive eighteenth president but exposes the reader to the intimate power-brokering that led to the end of Grant's career, setting the stage for a new era in American history — one defined by politics, not warfare.