Custer: Cavalier in Buckskin [Hardcover]

Robert M. Utley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2001

George Armstrong Custer. The name evokes instant recognition among Americans and people around the world. No figure in the history of the American West has more powerfully moved the human imagination. This new, lavishly illustrated book combines over 300 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 in this revised edition, and has brought the reference list completely up to date for the benefit of students, scholars, and western history buffs.

Bringing to life vivid images of the western military frontier, Custer presents George Armstrong Custer, the man and the legend, and illuminates the challenges he faced in warfare with the Indians of the Great Plains.

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert "Bob" Utley served for 25 years in various capacities with the National Park Service and other federal agencies. Since his retirement from the federal government in 1980, he has devoted himself full time to historical research and writing. His specialty is the history of the American West. Ten of Bob's books have been selections of the History Book Club, eight of the Book of the Month Club.

Bob was born in Arkansas October 31, 1929, but reared in Indiana. He attended Purdue and Indiana Universities (BS 1951, MA 1952). Bob spent six collegiate summers as a ranger-historian at Custer Battlefield National Monument, Montana, now Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He first pinned on the silver park ranger badge (not the present gold one) in June 1947 and took it off in September 1952 to be drafted into the U.S. Army. Bob also served four years, both as an enlisted man and an officer. Although trained as an infantryman, he served the final two years (plus one as a civilian), as a historian for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.

Bob returned to the National Park Service in permanent status in September 1957 and served, successively, as Regional Historian of the Southwest Region in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1957-64; as Chief Historian in Washington DC, 1964-72; as Director, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, 1972-73; and as Assistant Director of the National Park Service for Park Historic Preservation, 1973-76. From 1977 to 1980 he was Deputy Executive Director of the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

One of the founders of the Western History Association, Bob served on its governing council 1962-74 and as its president 1967-68. He was a member of the editorial board of The American West Magazine, 1964-80. The Western Historical Quarterly was launched during my presidency, and Bob served on its editorial board 1968-73. Bob was also a founder of the Potomac Corral of the Westerners Club in 1955 and its sheriff in 1973, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Eastern National Park and Monument Association 1985-87 and 1989-92. He has appeared frequently on television productions related to the history of the West (Real West, for example, and How the West Was Lost, as well as others on the History, Discovery, and other channels).

In 1974 Purdue University awarded Bob an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree, followed by the University of New Mexico in 1976 and Indiana University in 1981. In 1971 Bob received the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award.

Since 1980 Bob has been married to Melody Webb, also a National Park Service veteran and also a historian.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press; Rev Sub edition (June 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806133473
• ISBN-13: 978-0806133478
• Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do we need a revised edition?, August 18, 2001

By 

LaLoren - See all my reviews

This review is from: Custer: Cavalier in Buckskin (Hardcover)

The earlier paperback edition of Cavalier was the first book I read about Custer. At the time I was expecting Utley to take a strong stand as to whether Custer was a brilliant Indian-fighting hero, or an egomaniacal upstart. So I found the objective style and even-handed treatment a little disappointing. However, several years and books later, I have come to see this as the best book on Custer and LBH ever written, mainly because of his refusal to approach the subject with the pre-conceived notions others have.

Utley neither lauds Custer, nor does he cast blame. He makes it clear that Custer may have been somewhat over-rated in his Indian fighting abilities. Though he allows that he had gained a lot of knowledge of Plains warfare and might have become equal to the likes of Miles or Crook, had he lived. He points out that Custer did ignore the scouts who told him of the great number of warriors present in the camp on LBH. However, he also notes that Custer was not unlike other military leaders of the time in under estimating the fighting abilities of Indians, and therefore did not think that numbers really mattered. While he feels that Reno and Benteen did not support Custer as they could have, he also feels that not enough credit is given to the idea that the Indians merely outfought them all.

Of course, this was all included in the earlier editions. So the obvious question is, do you need to read the revised edition. This depends on what you're looking for.

With a few small exceptions the text remains the same. Utley has made a few changes based on later research, especially work by Larry Sklenar, but his overall theories have not changed. Also, for those interested in further reading, he has augmented his list of sources.

The main difference in the editions is physical. This is definitely "over-sized," fitted better to a coffee table than a bookshelf. And it is filled with illustrations, many of which seem to have been chosen more to improve the lay-out than for their applicability to the text. Take for example the photo of a Buffalo Soldier with the caption, "Custer disapproved of black soldiers...." (p.45) Or the photo of modern-day cadets at West Point captioned, "Cadet Custer had 726 demerits...."(p.22) And, of course, there are more portraits of Custer and renditions of LBH than one would ever dream existed.

My suggestion would be that, if you're a collector of Custeriana, or simply the type who likes to impress your guests with your choice of books, you might want to purchase this and place it somewhere prominent in your home. Otherwise you'd do just as well to stick with the paperback version.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who was George Armstrong Custer?, January 20, 2009

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Custer: Cavalier in Buckskin (Hardcover)

Robert Utley has been writing superb history of the American West for more than forty years. This biography of Custer is now more than two decades old but remains the quintessential introduction to the controversies/complexities/contradictions presented in the life of this career military office. Had he not died in an epic battle with the Sioux at the Little Bighorn in 1876 he might be mostly forgotten, but that death gave impetus to more than a century of Custerania that followed. Who was George Armstrong Custer? Was he the premier Sioux fighter, big game hunter, skilled plainsman, dashing adventurer, and celebrity of his day? Was he the mad tool of a nation bent on the genocide of a whole people? Why was he so (un)successful as a military commander? "Cavilier in Buckskin" offers an outstanding short and readily accessible introduction to the fascinating life and career of Custer. If one were to read only one book on this subject, Utley's book would be it.

Custer came to prominence during the Civil War when as a recent West Point graduate he led cavalry units for the Union to spectacular victories from Gettysburg to Appomattox. He then spent more than a decade on the American frontier, and had notable success in Kansas and the Dakotas in the later 1860s and early 1870s. His campaign in 1876 against the Sioux proved his undoing in a spectacular defeat in which his command was wiped out. Until that point he displayed for all to see intense ambition and self-promotion, and ruthlessly pursued fame and fortune in ways unacceptable to the upper classes that he sought to enter. Gossip and corruption also followed him everywhere, from shady business deals to marital infidelities.

Vine DeLoria once wrote a great book entitled, "Custer Died for Your Sins," that offered Custer as a surrogate for Anglo-American abuses of the Native population. Others have interpreted him as a mad, power, glory hungry opportunist. Still others have assigned him heroic status. The question remains, "who was Custer?" As Utley makes clear, he represented all sides of the Anglo-Native conflict in American history. This book is a superb discussion of this debate. Relatively short and a joy to read, "Cavalier in Buckskin" offers an entrée to an endlessly fascinating but often repulsive figure in American history. Enjoy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Robert Utley produces another thoughtful biography, April 10, 2007

By 

China Blue (Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Custer: Cavalier in Buckskin (Hardcover)

The master of the western biography has written (and added to the original version) a balanced reporting of the events that happened that day in June. The oversize pages allow for splendid photographic illustrations. All the versions as to what actually took place are presented thoughtfully and a case presented for the most logical conclusion. I had read his later book(s) including "The Lance and the Shield" about Sitting Bull, before discovering this one. It was also very interesting to find out what happened later to some of the people involved.