Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Bloodshed at Little Bighorn : Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations
ISBN: 9780801899904
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Johns Hopkins University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: History;

The U.S. military encounters a fierce insurgency it's ill-equipped to fight because its tactics are too rigid and it lacks a meaningful understanding of its opponents. Iraq, circa 2003? Or the American West, circa 1876? Historian Tim Lehman revisits Custer's Last Stand in this excellent primer, telling the story of Little Bighorn in the words of its participants. Little Bighorn remains a tragedy on an epic scale, and Lehman is chagrined by the enduring "mystery" of the catastrophe. True, battlefield reports are scant and conflicted, but Lehman's research provides an answer to the usual question, fueled by racial arrogance: How could a rag-tag band of savages defeat the legendary "fighting Seventh?" Custer made grave mistakes and the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors were highly-skilled at plains warfare, that's how. The battle was interpreted for decades from the white point of view as a "conflict between civilization and barbarism," a limited lens that only deepens the tragic dimensions of the enduring tale. Custer's wife, Libbie, devoted her life to ensuring that "tradition and history will be so mingled that no one will be able to separate them." With this book, Lehman has separated them. (June) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.