After leaving the presidency in 1877, Ulysses S. Grant embarked on an around-the-world tour, accompanied by journalist John Russell Young. This work contains Young's record of every detail of the grand tour - the sightseeing, official visits, travel conditions, and Grant's conversations.

First published in two volumes in 1879, Young's account has been abridged by historian Michael Fellman and is now available to modern readers in a single volume that, besides his adventures abroad, distills Grant's unvarnished memories and judgements of his wartime and executive experiences. It contains Grant's opinions of such Civil War figures as Stonewall Jackson and George McClellan. This is an intimate portrait of one of America's most brilliant - and thoughtful -military men. It is also a travel book, filled with reflections on exotic places and on Western, particularly British, imperialism as America was on the reluctant verge of entering the world stage.