I am obsessed with certain events in history: the reign of Henry VIII, the 17th century in England, and Custer's Last Stand.

Nathaniel Philbrick separates popular fiction from what facts he could find. The bibliography, index, and footnotes in the appendix of this prodigious book are amazing.

He attempts to equalize the telling of Custer infamous misteps with the way luck and tradition and community helped Sitting Bull to win this battle even as his people made their own Last Stand. Philbrick provides copious evidence of the "they had it coming" outlook on the massacre of Custer's troops.

Philbrick even brings in the impact of technology (such as the use of telescopes and their variant power at the time of the battle) as well as the elements of luck, timing, and ego.

As with many another historian, Philbrick assesses Custer's ego, but in this book we also see into the jealous fury of Benteen and the morose and drunken Major Reno. Philbrick illuminates the full cast of fighters, from the horse holders to the generals, from the famous Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to Gall and his son Deeds.He offers new information such as the changing of divisions by horse color to let the reader assess for himself/herself what Custer's motivations were.

While I prefer historical fiction to non-fiction, this book engaged me. In all ways, the battle marked a tragedy for the Custer and his men, the wives and families of both sides, and the beginning of the end of a way of life for the Native Americans of the Plains.

Another book about Custer that I liked better though I know it may not be as fully factually accurate is
"A Road We Do Not Know." His other title on Fort Phil Kearney "Moon of Bitter Cold"(both by Chivatone) are highly entertaining novels while also addressing the viciousness and sad state of affairs as America took the West away from the Native peoples.