The Custer Reader [Paperback]

Paul A. Hutton (Editor), Robert M. Utley (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 2004

George Armstrong Custer, America’s most famously unfortunate soldier, has been the subject of scores of books, but The Custer Reader is unique as a substantial source of classic writings about and by him. Here is Custer as seen by himself, his contemporaries, and leading scholars. Even those steeped in Custeriana will discover new insights in these pieces. Combining first-person narratives, essays, and photographs, this book provides a complete introduction to Custer’s controversial personality and career and the evolution of the Custer myth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hutton's anthology brings writings by contemporaries of the flamboyant general together with recent scholarly accounts of his career in the Civil War and in campaigns against the Plains Indians. Photos, maps. Military Book Club selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

With literally hundreds of titles about "America's most famously unfortunate soldier," Hutton (history, Univ. of New Mexico) manages to find and fill a niche in the Custer literature. The author of several award-winning works on the West (e.g., Phil Sheridan & His Army ), Hutton here collects writings by both historians and contemporaries of Custer, organizing them in four broad categories: the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Little Big Horn, and the Custer Myth. Good contemporary photographs and illustrations supplement the readings. This work nicely complements such standards as Robert Utley's Cavalier in Buckskin (Univ. of Oklahoma Pr., 1988) and Brian Dipple's Custer's Last Stand (o.p.). Despite its length, it will appeal to the history buff as well as the serious Custer scholar. Recommended for academic and public libraries. History Book Club alternate.
-Daniel Liestman, Seattle Pacific Univ.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (November 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806134658
• ISBN-13: 978-0806134659
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,305,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully eclectic, June 7, 2007

By 

History buff (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Custer Reader (Hardcover)

I am fairly baffled by the negative review below. This book is a great collection of materials -- both primary (19th c.) and secondary (20th c.) -- covering the whole of Custer's life. It's not a comprehensive argument, but a collection of reprints, but many of the things here are hard to find elsewhere. If you have an interest in Custer or the Indian Wars, this is a terrific resource, not only for learning the history but for understanding the mythologies that have come out of it. If there's a fault in the book it is that it could be revised with an expanded edition to include new material. How about it, Professor Hutton? A second edition? Please!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Collection of Custer Material: A Truely Fun Read, December 30, 1999

By 

Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Custer Reader (Paperback)

This book is unique in that it provides essays on the numerous facets of Custer's life not only by the participants that knew him but from Custer himself including notable historians that know Custer best. It also covers fascinating facts such as Custer's First Stand at Trevillian Station, a Civil War Battle where Custer was surrounded by Confederate Calavary. Hutton, himself a notable Western Historian, is one of a number of well written essays on the Custer Myth including a critical look at how movies and art portrayed Custer over the years representing the pathos of the nation at that time. The change of view from Erol Flynn's "They Died with Their Boots On" to Richard Mulligan's portrayal in "Little Bighorn" takes a well versed explanation. One of my favorite parts of the book is an essay by Hutton where he explains why in movie director John Ford's "Fort Apache" version of Custer's last stand, John Wayne's character Captain York praises the gallant loss of Colonel Thursday (Custer,) who he actually hated, because York "realized that society understands little of the true motivation of heroes but still needs to idealize them as figures to emulate". This is just not an interesting read but a reflection of how changes in society change perceptions of men and history. By the way, its a fun read!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Custer Reader, October 4, 2007

By 

Christopher M. Bean (Rockville, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Custer Reader (Paperback)

I recommend this book for anyone that is interested in the life of General George Armstrong Custer. I found this book to be the most insightful reporting of his life before, during and after the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25,1876. As always anything written by two of the greatest western and Custer historians of all time, the articles by Mr. Utley and Mr. Hutton are excellent. Because of number of articles written by so many authors you get a different outlook on what Custer's life was like during and after the Civil War. I own and have read upwards of forty books and articles on Custer, having started when I was a youngster and I was greatly suprised to find this book later in my life. I don't know how it slipped by in my Custermania. If there was only one book I could say offered a little bit of everything in Custer's life this is it. People tend to forget what a great Civil War hero he was and dwell on his great defeat in Montana that fateful day.