To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876

Written by Bret Baier and Catherine Whitney

Narrated by Bret Baier

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Fox News Channel’s Chief Political Anchor illuminates the heroic life of Ulysses S. Grant

""To Rescue the Republic is narrative history at its absolute finest. A fast-paced, thrilling and enormously important book."" —Douglas Brinkley

An epic history spanning the battlegrounds of the Civil War and the violent turmoil of Reconstruction to the forgotten electoral crisis that nearly fractured a reunited nation, Bret Baier’s To Rescue the Republic dramatically reveals Ulysses S. Grant’s essential yet underappreciated role in preserving the United States during an unprecedented period of division.

Born a tanner’s son in rugged Ohio in 1822 and battle-tested by the Mexican American War, Grant met his destiny on the bloody fields of the Civil War. His daring and resolve as a general gained the attention of President Lincoln, then desperate for bold leadership. Lincoln appointed Grant as Lieutenant General of the Union Army in March 1864. Within a year, Grant’s forces had seized Richmond and forced Robert E. Lee to surrender.

Four years later, the reunified nation faced another leadership void after Lincoln’s assassination and an unworthy successor completed his term. Again, Grant answered the call. At stake once more was the future of the Union, for though the Southern states had been defeated, it remained to be seen if the former Confederacy could be reintegrated into the country—and if the Union could ensure the rights and welfare of African Americans in the South. Grant met the challenge by boldly advancing an agenda of Reconstruction and aggressively countering the Ku Klux Klan. 

In his final weeks in the White House, however, Grant faced a crisis that threatened to undo his life’s work. The contested presidential election of 1876 produced no clear victory for either Republican Rutherford B. Hayes or Democrat Samuel Tilden, who carried most of the former Confederacy. Soon Southern states vowed to revolt if Tilden was not declared the victor. Grant was determined to use his influence to preserve the Union, establishing an electoral commission to peaceably settle the issue. Grant brokered a grand bargain: the installation of Republican Hayes to the presidency, with concessions to the Democrats that effectively ended Reconstruction. This painful compromise saved the nation, but tragically condemned the South to another century of civil-rights oppression.

Deep with contemporary resonance and brimming with fresh detail that takes readers from the battlefields of the Civil War to the corridors of power where men decided the fate of the nation in back rooms, To Rescue the Republic reveals Grant, for all his complexity, to be among the first rank of American heroes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063039575

Bret Baier

Bret Baier is the Chief Political Anchor for Fox News Channel and the anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier. He previously served as Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel and as the network’s National Security Correspondent based at the Pentagon. A recipient of the National Press Foundation’s Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, Baier is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment and Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win WWII. He lives with his family in Washington, DC.

Reviews for To Rescue the Republic

[David Anderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic book about one of the greatest americans of all time.I highly recommemf it

[tuckerresearch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another accessible biography by journalist Bret Baier, this time of Ulysses S. Grant. Quick, lucid writing, nice story-telling, and such. Not as meaningful as full-scale biographies by Brands or Chernow, but, another in the line of books seeking to rehabilitate (or habilitate?) Grant's reputation. There is a focus, in part four, on the disputed election of 1876 and Grant's role in, again "rescuing the Republic." There was quite the shenanigans in the election of 1876, and I don't know if anybody, Grant included, come out of it smelling of roses. Baier is trying a tad too much to shoehorn this into the overall theme of his books: turning-points and rescues. There was much information, though, about that election that I did not know before, so it was appreciated. Some okay images, though a mistake in captioning on two. Some historical errors (one on brevets, p. 28) and some typos. Mostly respected secondary sources and printed primary sources; new dumb endnoting system; index.

[deaconbernie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My review of Mr. Baier's work is probably impacted by the fact I read Ron Chernow"s Grant a few weeks ago. That said, I'll compare the two. Chernow is the historian while Baier tells us history but with a journalist's twist, and I like that. Reading Chernow, one always knows one is reading about things that happened a hundred or more years ago but, at times, Bret makes it seem contemporary. I would not expect Chernow to address the fact that Lee was, for many years, thought to be the greater general has now been replaced by Grant. No doubt the temperance folks downplayed Grant for his alledged drunkenness but it is clear now that Lee fought over familiar ground while Grant was the Grand Strategist. I think Baier also makes Grant more human although both comment about his humor which has largely been unreported until recently. Both authors work hard to establish that while there were scandals in Grant's presidency, he personally was not involved. Some might argue that if Grant could do such a good job in selecting subordinates as a general, why couldn't he have done a better job as President. Yes, he had some towering subordinate figures as general but he also had some poor ones.
Bottom line: I'm glad I read both of these books so close together. They don't compete so much as complement.