Teaching Grant

Joan Waugh is a leading scholar of U.S. history in the age of Grant, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age. She is also a distinguished classroom instructor. Professor Waugh is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. She joined the faculty in 1999.

She is the author of numerous articles, papers, book reviews, and lectures about Grant and the Civil War. Among her forthcoming works are the books, “Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Cause” and “The War for the Common Soldier,” both for the University of North Carolina Press; and the essay “The Funeral of U.S. Grant: A meditation on Gilded Age religion and reunion,” in Scott Poole and Edward J. Blum, editors, Religion and Reconstruction, 1863-1900, Northern Illinois University Press. She is also co-editor, with Alice Fahs, of the forthcoming “The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture,” University of North Carolina Press.

Professor Waugh earned the UCLA Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology, 2003.

Q: Professor Waugh, how do you approach the topic of Grant with your students?

A: I place him within my exposition and analysis of the importance of leadership in the war. Grant's success is contextualized within the demands of politics, the demands of home front morale, and his ability to visualize and implement the winning strategy. His willingness to implement Lincoln's plan for the enrollment and use of black soldiers is also highlighted as an example of how the war's goals changed from Unionism to emancipation. Grant represents the "hard war," that came in 1864 and 1865, and also the desire for reconciliation, as seen in the surrender agreement at Appomattox. As president, his successes and failures are considered in light of the immense challenges of reconstructing the country.

Q: As we move away from the "Great Man" theory of history, what is Grant's place in the broader views of histories?

A: I combine social, cultural, political and economic history in my lecture classes on the Civil War, Reconstruction and Gilded Age eras. Within the larger framework, biography is an effective and enjoyable way to clarify themes and arguments. Grant's Civil War career is a good way to explain the complex dynamics of the volunteer army in which West Point trained officers had to deal with democratic, undisciplined, independent minded citizen soldiers. Grant, like Lee, had an innate understanding of how to train, motivate, and sustain citizen-soldiers, and through the prism of his experience students can really see how the process worked.

Q: What kinds of questions are your undergraduates asking about Grant? How aware of they about Grant coming into your courses?

A: Students generally know very little about the Civil War, and especially its generals, when they enter my classroom, so it's satisfying to introduce them to the era. The students that do know something about Grant ask if he was really a drunken butcher; even more typical are the comments about his "failed" and corrupt presidency. By at least mid-way, many if not most have a much more sophisticated appreciation of his generalship, and especially the complex relationship between the battlefront and the home front.

Q: What would be the most important "take-away" message on Grant that you would want your students to know?

A: One of my primary goals is to get my students to go beyond the common idea that the Northerners did not fight for the Union with the same passion as the Southerners fought for independence. Grant's career and legacy is a perfect vehicle for exploring how the south lost the war but won the peace through the persistent power of the "Lost Cause" ideology.