The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn - Nathaniel Philbrick
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn - Nathaniel Philbrick
Non-Fiction
Pages: 496
The reputation of most military 'heroes' has a tendency to rise and fall with the prevailing attitudes of each era. In his day Custer was considered the archetypal American hero: brave, swaggering, uncompromising, a physical representation of the great American spirit in buckskin and spurs. To me, all I've ever known of him was the flipside of that: an arrogant, reckless, vainglorious soldier whose unquenchable quest for personal glory got him and his entire command slaughtered.
Philbrick doesn't set out to demolish or confirm either of these Custers. His portrayal won't overturn anyone's already-established opinion of Custer, and one of the real strengths of this book is that both portrayals are as valid as the other. All history is by its very nature conjecture, and Custer's Last Stand can be simultaneously a courageous last stand against overwhelming odds, an American Thermopylae, and a classic example of hubris and just desserts.
Where Philbrick does succeed admirably in setting Custer's 'last stand' in its context. Indeed, this whole book is context: since Custer's entire command was wiped out, any account of the actual battle at the Little Bighorn is necessarily historical guesswork, and Philbrick wisely avoids focusing on too much detail on the actual battle itself. That this book is still just as gripping as if the whole thing had been exhaustively documented is a real testament to the skill of the author.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 496
The reputation of most military 'heroes' has a tendency to rise and fall with the prevailing attitudes of each era. In his day Custer was considered the archetypal American hero: brave, swaggering, uncompromising, a physical representation of the great American spirit in buckskin and spurs. To me, all I've ever known of him was the flipside of that: an arrogant, reckless, vainglorious soldier whose unquenchable quest for personal glory got him and his entire command slaughtered.
Philbrick doesn't set out to demolish or confirm either of these Custers. His portrayal won't overturn anyone's already-established opinion of Custer, and one of the real strengths of this book is that both portrayals are as valid as the other. All history is by its very nature conjecture, and Custer's Last Stand can be simultaneously a courageous last stand against overwhelming odds, an American Thermopylae, and a classic example of hubris and just desserts.
Where Philbrick does succeed admirably in setting Custer's 'last stand' in its context. Indeed, this whole book is context: since Custer's entire command was wiped out, any account of the actual battle at the Little Bighorn is necessarily historical guesswork, and Philbrick wisely avoids focusing on too much detail on the actual battle itself. That this book is still just as gripping as if the whole thing had been exhaustively documented is a real testament to the skill of the author.