Review: Philbrick, The Last Stand

[truepenny]

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is an excellent book about the Battle of Little Bighorn. Philbrick has done extensive, careful research on both sides: Custer and the 7th Cavalry on the one hand, Sitting Bull and the Lakota and Cheyenne on the other. (Despite Stephen Ambrose's pairing of Crazy Horse and Custer, current historiography recognizes Sitting Bull as the leader of this piece of the resistance to white American imperialism.) He really digs into his sources, which I appreciate, and he assesses them carefully, although I think he's a little too willing to believe what Benteen says about Custer, and this credulity even though he talks about the obsessive, irrational quality of Benteen's hatred.

Philbrick is very readable, and he weaves together his widely disparate sources with respectful attention.



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