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The Last Stand

Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Jan 27, 2016lukasevansherman rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
The Battle of Little Big Horn (or Custer's Last Stand) is one of the closest things we have to an American myth. Custer has alternately been lionized for his courage against the savages and demonized for both his military failures and his war against America's indigenous people. Nathan Philbrick, the author of "Mayflower" and "In the Heart of the Sea," tries to get to the facts in this absorbing, well-researched history (History does contain plenty of description of events, "uncommonreader.") that does as good a job as possible of telling both sides of the story. Iconic figures like Custer, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse are hard to disentangle from legend, but Philbrick humanizes them and puts them in context. It's an important book about an important part of our history. Some other worthwhile books on Native Americans are "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee," "Black Elk Speaks," and "The Killing of Crazy Horse."