In this lavishly illustrated volume, Larry McMurtry, the greatest chronicler of the American West, tackles for the first time one of the paramount figures of Western and American history. On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry attacked a large Lakota Cheyenne village on the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. He lost not only the battle but his life--and the lives of his entire cavalry. "Custer's Last Stand" was a spectacular defeat that shocked the country and grew quickly into a ...
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In this lavishly illustrated volume, Larry McMurtry, the greatest chronicler of the American West, tackles for the first time one of the paramount figures of Western and American history. On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry attacked a large Lakota Cheyenne village on the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. He lost not only the battle but his life--and the lives of his entire cavalry. "Custer's Last Stand" was a spectacular defeat that shocked the country and grew quickly into a legend that has reverberated in our national consciousness to this day. Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry has long been fascinated by the "Boy General" and his rightful place in history. In Custer, he delivers an expansive, agile, and clear-eyed reassessment of the iconic general's life and legacy--how the legend was born, the ways in which it evolved, what it has meant--told against the broad sweep of the American narrative. We see Custer in all his contradictions and complexity as the perpetually restless man with a difficult marriage, a hunger for glory, and an unwavering confidence in his abilities. McMurtry explores how the numerous controversies that grew out of the Little Bighorn combined with a perfect storm of technological developments--the railroad, the camera, and the telegraph--to fan the flames of his legend. He shows how Custer's wife, Libbie, worked for decades after his death to portray Major Marcus Reno as the cause of the disaster of the Little Bighorn, and how Buffalo Bill Cody, who ended his Wild West Show with a valiant reenactment of Custer's Last Stand, played a pivotal role in spreading Custer's notoriety. While Custer is first and foremost an enthralling story filled with larger-than-life characters--Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, William J. Fetterman, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud--McMurtry also argues that Little Bighorn should be seen as a monumental event in our nation's history. Like all great battles, its true meaning can be found in its impact on our politics and policy, and the epic defeat clearly signaled the end of the Indian Wars--and brought to a close the great narrative of western expansion. In Custer, Larry McMurtry delivers a magisterial portrait of a complicated, misunderstood man that not only irrevocably changes our long-standing conversation about Custer, but once again redefines our understanding of the American West.
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On June 26, 1876, General George Custer led about 264 soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry into massacre by a combined force of plains Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Battle and Custer quickly became legendary. Many books have been written from varied perspectives about Custer, Little Bighorn, and the United States' Westward expansion.
Released in early November, 2012, Larry McMurtry's "Custer" is among the most recent studies of an endlessly fascinating subject. McMurtry is a prolific novelist and writer on the American West. His longstanding familiarity and writing about the West and his love for the subject are themselves enough to make his thoughts about Custer of interest. His book on Custer does not purport to be definitive or particularly original. To the contrary, McMurtry several times commends to interested readers the detailed Custer studies by Robert Utley, James Donovan, Nathaniel Philbrick and, in particular Evan Connell. "Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn". In his book, McMurtry expresses a preference for short biographies, along the line of his own earlier biography of Crazy Horse for the reason that they force most readers and writers to come to the heart of their subjects.
McMurtry's book is a coffee-table work of about 175 pages rather than a full scholarly account. It is a mixture of history and meditation, as is Connell's book on a much larger scale. For an event which has become iconic, such as Little Bighorn, writing tends to flow between the battle and its background, how the battle has been viewed by others over time, and the views of the author. This is emphatically the case with McMurtry's book.
The text of the book is spare, colloquial and for the most part eloquent. There are typographical errors, small inconsistencies, and some awkward grammatical contsrtuctions which are irritating. The larger portion of the book is devoted to paintings, photographs, and memorabilia of Custer and his era. They include popular prints, paintings by Catlin, Remington, Indian artists and much more. There are occasional errors in identifying the illustrations. The illustrations McMurtry has assembled for the book are difficult to find in one place. Some will be familiar to many readers while others are rare. They greatly enhance the value of the book.
There are those who argue that Custer and Little Bighorn receive too much attention. McMurtry disagrees. Throughout this book, he stresses the importance of the battle and its pivotal role in the settlement of the American West. Tragic and enigmatic, Custer and Little Bighorn deserve the attention they have received from historians and from the public.
McMurtry does not offer a linear narrative. His story tends to wander and he follows his thoughts. He offers fresh comparisons between Custer and the earlier explorer, soldier, and presidential candidate Fremont. He offers portrayals of leading characters who played roles on the American frontier, including Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Hancock, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk, and more. The discussion of the Battle of Little Bighorn and of predecessor battles are brief. With all the illustrations, the book would have benefited from a detailed map of the Little Bighorn fight, showing lines of approach, Custer's divisions of his troops, the approach of the Indians, and the like.
When I wrote this review, "Custer" had been released for less than one month, and sparked many reader reviews. The reviews, in their number and content, show the interest and passion which Custer continues to inspire. Many of the Amazon reviews are written by individuals who obviously know and care a great deal about the facts of the battle. These reviews tend to point out the shortness of McMurtry's account, the factual errors and inconsistencies, and the sometimes sloppy editing that I mentioned above.
I found the book moving. The text, illustrations, and reflections made me think about Custer and Little Bighorn and their significance. They brought home a sense of American history and drive together with tragedy. The book gave me an overview of Custer's story, the West, and the different, seemingly conflicting ways of understanding it. The errors of the book, for most lay readers, will not appreciably detract from the presentation. McMurtry's goal was to present a short, distilled, thoughtful account of Custer and Little Bighorn. For the most part, I think he succeeds. The book offers many sources, including the four authors named above, for readers who want to learn more.
The reader reviews of this book and their different perspectives helped me think about what I found valuable in McMurtry's account and about why I found reading the book and thinking about the illustrations worthwhile.
