By John Marszalek Jonathan Sarna’s book When General Grant Expelled the Jews is going to make a significant splash amidst a wave of new books reevaluating the career of one of the most famous Army General/Presidents. On December 16, 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant issued his infamous General Orders No. 11. During his effort to wrest control of the western theater of the Civil War from Confederate forces, Grant struggled to control commercial activity. The drive for profits of some traders within his lines exasperated him and, reflecting the then-common public stereotyping of Jews as financially crafty, he arbitrarily lashed out at Jewish traders and declared that “the Jews as a class” had to be expelled. The pronouncement ordered the eviction of all Jews and not just Jewish traders. Grant seemed to replicate earlier East European pogroms from which...

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