In Custer and Me, renowned western historian and expert on historic preservation, Robert M. Utley, turns his talents to his own life and career. Through lively personal narrative, Utley offers an insider's view of Park Service workings and problems, both at regional and national levels, during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations. Utley also details the birth of the Western History Association, early national historic-preservation programs, and the many clashes over "symbolic possession" ...
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In Custer and Me, renowned western historian and expert on historic preservation, Robert M. Utley, turns his talents to his own life and career. Through lively personal narrative, Utley offers an insider's view of Park Service workings and problems, both at regional and national levels, during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations. Utley also details the birth of the Western History Association, early national historic-preservation programs, and the many clashes over "symbolic possession" of what is now the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Readers will discover how a teenager smitten with Custermania came as an adult to appreciate the full complexity of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and its interpretation and to research and write narrative histories of the American West that have appealed to popular audiences while winning highest honors from the scholarly and writing communities.
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The July 2007 issue of True West magazine featured Utley on the cover with the heading "The Man Who Saved the West." The reader can wrestle with that claim himself but can cannot argue with the fact that this is a life well lived. Utley began his tenure with the Custer Battlefield in 1948 as a young ranger under the fold of Supt. Edward Luce. Shortly thereafter Utley met Charles Windolph, the sole surviving veteran of the battle, and heard the story first hand. The book is a must for any serious student of the battle and reveals the inter-workings of the National Park Service and the battlefield from the 1940's to the 1990's. With numerous books and articles to his credits Robert Utley remains one of America's foremost historians on the history of the west.
