This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

And up next, a story about Ulysses S. Grant by Lewis Pocone, author of Grant's tomb,

the epic death of Ulysses S. Grant and the making of an American pantheon.

Today, Lewis shares with us the story of how Grant's memoirs considered the best presidential memoirs

ever written came to be. Take it away, Lewis.

After his presidency, Grant almost immediately departed on a tour that was supposed to be just for Europe.

He was going to travel all around Europe, basically as long as his interest and money held out.

He ended up extending that trip all through

Europe, into Africa, all through Asia, and for two and a half years, he had traveled the world,

never came back to America from May 1877 until September of 1879 is when he landed back in America. And everywhere he went, Grant was treated

like a global celebrity, like royalty. There was parades, there was military honors given to him.

He met with kings. He met with royalty. So he was really given a hero's welcome wherever he went.

And when he came back to America, his popularity was as high as it's ever been.

And this was a time when America was still greatly divided after the Civil War.

This was only 15, 18 years after the Civil War.

Reconstruction had ended when Rutherford B. Hayes had taken office, but the North and South were still greatly divided.

But Grant was the most popular man in America, and really perhaps the world due to this tour.

But he was also perhaps the one figure

that was admired by all sections and was really a unifier. He was beloved by Democrats and Republicans,

by northerners and southerners, by whites and African Americans, by men and women. In the north,

he was the savior of the Union.

...