President Grant's Betrayal, w/ John Reeves
Ulysses S. Grant is remembered as the general who saved the Union, and a growing number of historians rank him among the better presidents for what he tried to do during Reconstruction. John Reeves is here to complicate that picture. Reeves is the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee, A Fire in the Wilderness, and Soldier of Destiny, his account of Grant's rise and his break with slavery. His new book is Grant's Betrayal: Power, Corruption, and the Theft of the Black Hills (Pegasus Books). It argues that inside Grant's White House there was a secret plan to take the Black Hills from the Lakota, land the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty had set aside as theirs, and land the Lakota called Paha Sapa, the heart of everything that is. We get into the Peace Policy and whether it was ever real, the 1874 Custer expedition and the gold strike, the claim that the treaty was being subverted from the start, the roles of Orvil Grant, Philip Sheridan, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Eagle Woman, the Great Sioux War and the 1877 seizure, and how this story sits next to the recent rehabilitation of Grant's presidency. A century later a U.S. Court of Claims looked back at Grant's course and the pressure put on the starving Sioux and said a more rank case of dishonorable dealing would probably never be found in our history. Grant's Betrayal is out November 3, 2026. John Reeves: https://john-reeves.com 🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian, author, and Smithsonian Magazine contributor Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day. ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-shorts/id1717345209?action=write-review 🎵 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CnKo8pKZNR63aMyNuRz4D ☕ Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ▶️ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryShortsPodcast 🔗 Website: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com
