Authors: Louise Barnett
ISBN-13: 9780803262669, ISBN-10: 0803262663
Format: Paperback
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Date Published: October 2006
Edition: 1st Edition
Louise Barnett is a professor of English and American studies at Rutgers University and the author of a number of books, including The Ignoble Savage: American Literary Racism, 17901890, and Ungentlemanly Acts: The Army’s Notorious Incest Trial.
For more than a century, Americans have been captivated by the legend of General George Armstrong Custer. But the various truths of Custer’s life and last stand prove elusive. Why are we so taken with the myth and the so-called mystery behind the man?
In a field teeming with highly partisan and wildly speculative treatments of Custer, Louise Barnett enters with a volume widely acclaimed by both military and cultural historians as the most balanced account of his life and legend. Custer's life spans two great eras of American history, and Barnett's commanding work pushes beyond the existing literature to a comprehensive view of this controversial figure.
Introduction | 1 | |
Part 1 | Glory | |
1 | Early Days | 9 |
2 | Libbie Bacon, Libbie Bacon | 19 |
3 | "The Honorable and Glorious Profession of Arms" | 27 |
4 | Libbie's War | 37 |
5 | Knight sans Peur et sans Reproche | 48 |
Part 2 | Transition | |
6 | Postwar Doldrums | 59 |
7 | Joining the Frontier Army | 76 |
8 | Frontier Army Wives | 85 |
9 | The Plains Indians | 100 |
10 | Indian Fighting | 117 |
11 | Nadir | 126 |
Part 3 | Recovery | |
12 | Victory on the Washita | 147 |
13 | Save the Last Bullet for Your Wife | 167 |
14 | Libbie and Autie, or A Companionable Wife | 186 |
15 | The Great Buffalo Hunt | 205 |
16 | Heroes of the Plains | 220 |
17 | Farther West | 236 |
Part 4 | 1876 | |
18 | Prelude | 253 |
19 | The Little Bighorn | 274 |
20 | Survivors | 309 |
21 | Mystery | 331 |
Part 5 | Endless Devotion | |
22 | "I Longed to Die": The Long Widowhood of Elizabeth Custer | 351 |
23 | Literary Careers | 363 |
24 | Monuments | 373 |
25 | Aging | 389 |
Epilogue: Custer Forever | 398 | |
Acknowledgments | 413 | |
Notes | 415 | |
Bibliography | 496 | |
Index | 525 |