Mekana

Disseminated, as in scattered all over the place

Academia, Books, Photos | December 3, 2009

Right now, I’m a slave to the memory of Ulysses S. Grant.

I have to write a ten-page paper analyzing his reputation and relating it to presidential reputation in general. That, along with an econ exam, a poli sci exam, and a take-home sociology exam are the only obstacles standing between me and Christmas, which I’m already ready for (see left — I draw in my planner to procrastinate). I’ve been listening to plenty of Christmas music, including the Chrismukkah album from The O.C. Years later, I still miss that show.

My research so far has yielded three pages of bullet points in Word and dusty hands from paging through books on Grant dating back to the 1800s. I’ve always been partial to new books because they’re so crisp and clean, but now I understand why some people like old books. There’s so much history. And I’m thinking about being a history major, so I better love history. I love immersing myself in other people’s past, even if I’m okay with being good at forgetting my own.

Presidential reputation — and reputation as a whole — is so unpredictable and so hard to figure out. There’s no telling what event might lead to what type of reputation far down the road. We oversimplify people’s good and bad qualities and craft them into one type of skewed image we hold of that person. That’s why I don’t like the word “reputation.” It’s usually not a correct representation, especially when one’s reputation is crafted by one’s enemies, as was the case with Grant.

We don’t revere war heroes the way we used to. Nothing romantic exists about the war in Iraq like the romance and intrigue associated with the Civil War. There hasn’t been a real war hero president since Eisenhower. McCain was a war hero, but he clearly didn’t win the election. Same with Goldwater and McGovern. Grant, who is credited for introducing modern warfare to the military, receives much of the bad reputation brunt even though he was arguably the most popular man in the land after his victory.

Interesting how far a reputation can fall.