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Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn
 
 
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Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn (Paperback)

~ Evan S. Connell (Author) "Lt. James Bradley led a detachment of Crow Indian scouts up the Bighorn Valley during the summer of 1876..." (more)
Key Phrases: hostile village, post trader, coup stick, Sitting Bull, Little Bighorn, Fort Lincoln (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
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Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn + A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West + Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On June 25, 1876, Gen. George Armstrong Custer and some 200 cavalrymen under his command blundered into a coulee along the banks of Montana's Little Bighorn River. They never came out; several thousand Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho warriors saw to that. The name and the event of the Little Bighorn have subsequently entered into American mythology, reverberating throughout the nation's history. Custer's famous demise has yielded thousands of books, and Son of the Morning Star is exceptional among them: part anthropological study of Plains Indian life, part military history, and part character study of the principal actors in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Evan Connell's work presents the first truly balanced account of Custer's career.

Review

"A scintillating book, thoroughly researched and brilliantly constructed." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Impressive in its massive presentation of information . . . Son of the Morning Star makes good reading--its prose is elegant, its tone the voice of dry wit, its meandering narrative skillfully crafted. Mr. Connell is above all a storyteller, and the story he tells is vastly more complicated than who did what to whom on June 25, 1876."--Page Stenger, The New York Times Book Review

"Son of the Morning Star leaves the reader astonished."--The Washington Post

"A scintillating book, thoroughly researched and brilliantly constructed."--The Wall Street Journal
-- Review

"Impressive in its massive presentation of information... Son of the Morning Star makes good reading-its prose is elegant, its tone the voice of dry wit, its meandering narrative skillfully crafted. Mr. Connell is above all a storyteller, and the story he tells is vastly more complicated than who did what to whom on June 25, 1876." -- Page Stegner, The New York Times Book Review

"Impressive in its massive presentation of information . . . Son of the Morning Star makes good reading--its prose is elegant, its tone the voice of dry wit, its meandering narrative skillfully crafted. Mr. Connell is above all a storyteller, and the story he tells is vastly more complicated than who did what to whom on June 25, 1876."--Page Stenger, The New York Times Book Review

"Son of the Morning Star leaves the reader astonished."--The Washington Post

"A scintillating book, thoroughly researched and brilliantly constructed."--The Wall Street Journal
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: North Point Press (October 30, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0865475105
  • ISBN-13: 978-0865475106
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,468 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #17 in  Books > History > United States > 19th Century > Expansionism

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Evan S. Connell
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First Sentence:
Lt. James Bradley led a detachment of Crow Indian scouts up the Bighorn Valley during the summer of 1876. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hostile village, post trader, coup stick, pony herd, picket pin
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sitting Bull, Little Bighorn, Fort Lincoln, General Custer, Seventh Cavalry, Black Kettle, West Point, Bloody Knife, General Terry, Civil War, Black Hills, New York, Wooden Leg, United States, Major Reno, Rosebud Creek, General Crook, Tom Custer, Carroll Collection, Standing Rock, Dakota Territory, Fort Hays, Lonesome Charley, Son of the Morning Star, Fort Riley
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82% buy the item featured on this page:
Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn 4.5 out of 5 stars (60)
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A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West
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A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West 4.5 out of 5 stars (76)
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Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield Then and Now
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Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield Then and Now 4.5 out of 5 stars (23)
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38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Jumbled, Yet Fascinating Look At Custer and the Indian Wars, July 19, 2000
Evan Connell has written a powerful book. It is a balanced presentation of George Armstrong Custer, the post-Civil War Indian Wars, Plains Indians and the myth of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Facts abound. I started this book thinking it would primarily focus on Gen. Custer and the fight. While those topics are the framework of the book, Connell spends quite a bit of time exploring various indian chiefs, indian practices, previous conflicts and the conditions that produced one of our country's most celebrated battles. First person quotes are abundent and the author usually produces two or more sides to every episode. These explorations underscore how difficult getting at a true history is, particulary when pride and ego rest on a particular telling of an event. He has done very good research.

This is a brutal book. American and indian savagry are laid bare. Warfare and existence on the frontier were not pretty. The "rules" of war were abandoned by both sides with regard to the taking of prisoners or the frequent butchering of women and children along with those unlucky enough to be in the path of maurading soldiers or indian bands. Connell's book leaves no doubt that American notions of racial superiority, mainfest destiny and economics created the situation in which the indians would fight in the extreme to protect their lands from white encroachment. However, the author also underscores that most of the indian tribes were brutal and ruthless when attacking other tribes, lone indians and in their own rituals and customs. Had America respected it's indian treaties, it can be argued that the indian lands still would have had atrocities visited upon them as various tribes concentrated their full time attentions on settling the wrongs each felt had been metted out by other red men. His refusal to treat the indian as a politically correct manifestation of mother nature is refreshing and allows for a very balanced telling of the story.

The author has a unique writing style. He doesn't come to a fork in the road without taking it. These side tracks and tangents allow him to explore in full the charactors and milieu attendent to The Last Stand. However, they are presented in no particular order or chronology. The author paints a strong impression rather than presenting an ordered and structured telling of a compelling tale. This incohesion is so pronounced that the end of a chapter has no meaning other than to allow one to catch one's breath before plunging into the next twenty pages of free associations.

My opinion of this book changed several times during my reading. In the beginning, I found it hard to get into because of it's meandering style. But the vignettes, characters, facts and writing are all compelling. His style will require some adjustment to the frequent reader of history. But, by the end the reader will know that they have immersed themselvs in a darn good story that fascinates.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Aimless journey through an American legend, November 9, 2001
By Pete Agren (Twin Cities, MN United States) - See all my reviews
Connell has one of the most unorthodox writing styles of any history writer I've read but somehow it works brilliantly. A proper chronological order is completely disregarded and Connell jumps all over the place, yet somehow is able to keep the reader right along with him. It reminds me of listening to an old Vet tell war stories and finish half a story and skip to something completely unrelated again and again and again until you can't remember where he originally started the conversation from. Yet, just like listening to the proud hero tell his tales, it is completely fascinating and you will hang on every word.
A prime example of this is within the first ten pages of the book, Connell is writing about President Hayes' Court of Inquiry, three years AFTER the battle.
Another thing which Connell does masterfully is tell BOTH sides of the tale. The Dakota and 7th Cavalry are given equal weight throughout the book and the author pours pertinent information as well as trivial but entertaining facts at the reader. And along with giving biographies on Reno and Benteen, the reader learns just as much background information on Gall, Crazy Horse and Two Moon.
About the only person I suggest shy away from this book is a college student cramming for a paper because there's no way they'd be able to find the needed info with Connell's writing style. However, if they don't procrastinate and began reading at the beginning of the semester, I promise you won't find another book with more info on the subject.
-Warning-
If you do read "Son of the Morning Star," be prepared to take a trip out to the high plains of Montana to see the battlefield. Connell's book instilled a 'must-see' desire into me on having to see the Bighorn for myself and I plan to go next summer. See you there!
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A GOOD OBJECTIVE LOOK AT A WESTERN LEGEND, August 30, 2003
By A Customer
Like many historic events of the nineteenth century--especially those of a tragic nature--the events that took place at The Little Bighorn were shrouded for decades in sensationalism to a greater or lesser degree. Misconceptions and inaccuracies have abounded as the story of Custer and his ill-fated troops has been told and retold in print and on the big screen.

I was looking for a book that would go a long way in providing an objective view of the events surrounding The Battle of the Little Bighorn and found such a book in Son of the Morning Star.

Evan S. Connell does a masterful job of telling the story. He provides excellent background history and tells how information, or the lack thereof, available to Custer at the time may have contributed to his ultimate demise. Arrogance and racism have long been attributed to Custer's disastrous campaign but Connell helps paint probably the most accurate and objective portrait of the colorful general to date. Custer was arrogant but Connell shows that there was much more to the story.

A great read!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Son of the Morning Star" Sheds Much Light on American Character.
As you might expect of a book hailed by Larry McMurtry as one of the best treatments of the Great Plains in American history, this book is an elegantly and devilishly plotted... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Zara Raab

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Enlightening
Very good. Very factual and incormative. I have read it several times and because of this book I drove 1500 miles to visit the battlefield.
Published 7 months ago by John Langston

3.0 out of 5 stars Good solid read, but too much ramble and skipping
While this is a very solid book, full of great facts and 'inside' stories, it does tend to ramble in areas and skip around on tangents. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Zgore

2.0 out of 5 stars As stylish as it is propagandizing
'Song of the Morning Star' is a lyrical masterpiece that leads you along a dreamy and, at times, surrealistic portrayal of the characters and events before, during and after June... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jersey Kid

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Facts & Analysis -- Brutal Organization or Lack Thereof
This slightly dated work by an accomplished novelist is well worth slugging through its lack of organization and meanderings to extract the huge compendium of facts contained... Read more
Published 17 months ago by David M. Dougherty

5.0 out of 5 stars A Captivating Read
Those who study the Little Big Horn battle seem to fall into two camps where this work is concerned, some love it for it literary style, others loath it as it doesn't adhere to a... Read more
Published 20 months ago by John D. Mackintosh

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful narrative, impossible to categorize
On a whim, I purchased this book at a London bookshop in the late 1980's, and was immediately captivated by it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Wade F. Waldrip

4.0 out of 5 stars Causes the Reader to Come Down with "Little Big Horn Fever"
"Son of the Morning Star" is an entralling book by a wonderful storyteller. It tells the story of the events leading up to and the aftermath of the Battle of Little Big Horn, in... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Stephen Hammack

4.0 out of 5 stars Son of the Morning Star
I have been to the battlefield and have read and seen numerous documentaries of the Big Horn" battle (even watched the made for television series by the same title as this book),... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Elson F. Alvarez

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Entertaining
Being a longstanding, confirmed student of the frontier Indian War era, Custer and his likes, etc., by now I must have read and collected several hundred books on these topics... Read more
Published on January 19, 2008 by Alan D. Gray

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