Playing Custer is a novel narrated from varying points of view and time, illuminating personal and political events leading up to the death of General George Armstrong Custer. The historic events are framed by the story of two men from the late twentieth century—one white and one Native American—who travel together to the annual reenactment of the battle at the Little Bighorn National Monument battlefield. Chatting during their journey, the two reenactors discuss their obsessions, personal ambitions, and failures of nerve. Interwoven with their progress toward the battle are narrations, journal entries, and first-person viewpoints from many others who were actually involved in the historic events. Soldiers and scouts for the cavalry; Sioux, Crow, and Cheyenne witnesses; and wives and daughters all offer their versions of “truth,” establishing a texture and depth of irony, humor, and tragic meaning to those modern Americans driven to attempt to “play Custer.” This year—a special anniversary of the real battle—they are suddenly chosen for crucial new roles. This time, they will play Custer and Crazy Horse. All builds toward the real and reenacted final moments on the battlefield of Custer’s last stand.

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a capable yet insecure man, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (court-martialed twice in six years) and the new corporate economy, a wartime emancipator who rejected racial equality. Stiles argues that, although Custer was justly noted for his exploits on the western frontier, he also played a central role as both a wide-ranging participant and polarizing public figure in his extraordinary, transformational time—a time of civil war, emancipation, brutality toward Native Americans, and, finally, the Industrial Revolution—even as he became one of its casualties. Intimate, dramatic, and provocative, this biography captures the larger story of the changing nation. It casts surprising new light on one of the best-known figures of American history, a subject of seemingly endless fascination.

The son of a village blacksmith in Ohio, Custer qualified last in his class at West Point. Yet he proved to be a brilliant Civil War commander from the moment he made his debut at Gettyshurg. At age twenty-five he was promoted to the rank of major general, a feat that earned him the sobriquet "the boy general." Following the war, as part of the frontier army, he was handed the task of protecting the railroads by reining in the Plains Indians. Resplendent in buckskin he steadily built a reputation as an Indian fighter, enhancing his legend with his own writings. Always forthright with his opinions, Custer may have held a future career, some have suggested, in politics. However, this will never be known, for on June 25, 1876 Custer reached his untimely end. Heavily outnumbered by a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer's entire company was cut down. Never before or since have Indians inflicted such a defeat on federal troops. This new illustrated book combines over 200 photographs and paintings, many in color, with a revised edition of Robert M. Utley's classic biography, Cavalier in Buckskin. Drawing on twelve years of additional research on Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Utley has dramatically changed his original interpretations of Custer's Last Stand, addressing the eternal question: might Custer have won?

"The Custer literature is voluminous and most of it is highly controversial. Through the tangle of charges and countercharges Jay Monaghan cuts a clear path in his fresh account of Custer's whole career. Where possible, Monaghan relies on original sources, and he appraises them with the sound judgment of the practiced historian he is. He is sympathetic with Custer but does not hesitate to show the man's foibles and failures. He presents no attorney's brief and yet he disproves a number of ill-founded accusations. . . ."

Never before has a historically accurate novel telling of the day-to-day journey to the Little Big Horn featuring interesting characters been written, including the Gatling Gun Battery commander and his men. Custer takes his three Gatling Guns with him instead of leaving them at the Yellowstone River. The author, a retired Marine, came up with a plausible solution of how the heavy machine guns could have moved with the 7th Cavalry without slowing it down through rough terrain. The book has a "what if" flavor from beginning to the dramatic ending that any history buff will enjoy. A rip-roaring tale of the 1870's. About the Author: Donald F. Myers was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1952 at age seventeen he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps. He retired from the Corps on 30 April 1973. Myers is Indiana's most decorated living Marine veteran. A recipient of two Silver Star medals for conspicuous gallantry, two Bronze Star medals for heroic achievement, five Purple Heart medals for combat wounds, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation medal for heroic achievement, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palm, and Vietnam Medal of Military Merit are among his 32 awards. The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employed Myers after he was medically retired from the Corps. In 1990, he retired from the VA as a senior counselor. Myers also spent over 20 years with the Indiana Guard Reserve retiring from that military organization as a full colonel. He has authored six books. A father of two sons and three daughters Myers resides with his wife Dorothy in Franklin Township, a suburb on the southeast side of Indianapolis.

Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley are caught between two cultures that won’t let go of the past—and a killer who won’t leave any witnesses… On the anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Colonel Edward Garrett, a well- known Custer impersonator, leads a troop of reenactors in a cavalry parade down Main Street in Lander, Wyoming. But a group of Arapaho youth disrupts the parade by riding their horses around the column, just to remind everyone who actually won the battle. Then history repeats itself when, in the confusion, Garrett is shot dead. Father John O’Malley knows in his heart the Arapaho are not guilty. And Vicky Holden finds herself professionally and personally compromised from getting involved. But what begins as a murder soon reveals itself as a conspiracy that neither Father John nor Vicky could have foreseen. And someone wants to ensure that the truth they discover will die with them…

The 1876 events known as Custer’s Last Stand, Battle of Little Big Horn, or Battle of Greasy Grass have been represented over 1000 times in various artistic media, from paintings to sculpture to fast food giveaways. Norman Denzin shows how these representations demonstrate the changing perceptions—often racist—of Native America by the majority culture, juxtaposed against very different readings shown in works composed by Native American artists. Consisting of autobiographical reminiscences, historical description, artistic representations, staged readings, and snippets of documents, this multilayered performance ethnography examines questions of memory, race, and violence against Native America, as symbolized by the changing interpretations of General Custer and his final battle.

The Real Custer takes a good hard look at the life and storied military career of George Armstrong Custer—from cutting his teeth at Bull Run in the Civil War, to his famous and untimely death at Little Bighorn in the Indian Wars. Author James Robbins demonstrates that Custer, having graduated last in his class at West Point, went on to prove himself again and again as an extremely skilled cavalry leader. Robbins argues that Custer's undoing was his bold and cocky attitude, which caused the Army's bloodiest defeat in the Indian Wars. Robbins also dives into Custer’s personal life, exploring his letters and other personal documents to reveal who he was as a person, underneath the military leader. The Real Custer is an exciting and valuable contribution to the legend and history of Custer that will delight Custer fans as well as readers new to the legend.

A New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history and the battle at Little Bighorn. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.

With the Great Sioux War as background and context, and drawing on many new materials, Thomas Powers establishes what really happened in the dramatic final months and days of Crazy Horse’s life. He was the greatest Indian warrior of the nineteenth century, whose victory over General Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was the worst defeat ever inflicted on the frontier army. But after surrendering to federal troops, Crazy Horse was killed in custody for reasons which have been fiercely debated for more than a century. The Killing of Crazy Horse pieces together the story behind this official killing.