Brooks D. Simpson

Brooks Simpson approaches American history, particularly the Civil War and Reconstruction, with a clear-eyed focus on leadership and consequence. Based at Arizona State University, his scholarship is defined by a rigorous engagement with primary sources and a willingness to challenge entrenched narratives. He is perhaps best known for his multi-volume biography of Ulysses S. Grant, a project that strips away generations of myth and criticism to evaluate the general and president on his own terms. Simpson presents Grant not as a simple butcher or drunkard, but as a determined, politically astute, and often underrated figure whose strategic vision secured Union victory and whose presidential efforts to protect freedmen were undermined by a retreating nation. His work argues that the era's possibilities and failures are inextricably linked to the choices of individuals like Grant.