The Custer Myth: A Source Book of Custeriana

by W.A. Graham

Book Overview

"I have collected here, and offer in this volume, a great many bits of now scarce source material, from which you, the reader, may construct a mosaic of your own, appraising the value and proper... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080327016X
• ISBN13: 9780803270169
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 413 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.9" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

THE Primary Resource on the Little Big Horn

It is my opinion that the three most famous battlefields on US soil are (in no particular order) the Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, and the Alamo. Each has a legion of students and enthusiasts accompanied by a number of printed resources. Stackpole Books has added to the printed resources on the Little Big Horn with its' collection of books known as The Custer Library. The most important of these books, in my opinion, is "The Custer Myth" It contains just about all of the available first person accounts of the battle known to exist. Many of the accounts are rather short but all are interesting. For the "Last Stand" buffs, it is like waking up on Christmas morning to find that you got everything you wanted except actual newsreel footage. For the casual observer of the subject, this may be the downfall of the book. After all, the stories greatly overlap and repeat each other. In doing so, they add another dimension of personalizing the battle even more. No Custer enthusiast should be without this book and no private library of American History is complete without it either. Do yourself a favor and add it to your library as well.

A brilliant resource.

This book gives no definitive answers on the biggest puzzles of Little Big Horn ... which is its greatest strength. By pulling together all the available testimony, from both sides and all angles, it's proof of how 'the fog of war' -- as well as participants' own agendas -- makes any battle more confusing to its participants than to those who come after. For the reader, piecing together the conflicting accounts, and assessing the characters/viewpoints/axes-to-grind of those giving them, it's a total immersion not just in the facts but in the feelings, prejudices and atmosphere of the time. A wonderful book. And one that should be basic training for every student of history, whatever their period. This is how history is.

A Vast Collection of Testimonies amd Letters on Custer & LBH

This is Graham's great collction of testimonies about Custer and the Little Big Horn from the Sioux, Cheyene, Rees, Crows, scouts, officers, soildiers and others. An incredible collection of material laid out in categorical chapters. Graham lays this often quoted collection out without prejudice and although he questions the Indian participant's accounts due to their lack of perception of exact time and spatial realities, he presents it all the same. What is quite fascinating are the virtual raw letters of Benteen to William Goldin. The letters show Benteen's bitter side particularly toward Custer and demonstrates that Reno was also not held highly on his list, if anyone was. Also, has Godfrey's great history of the battle and the book even includes challenging letters from Grahams critics to his personal responses. A great book for those that want to know all from multiple perspectives of the participants.

Invaluable resource for the Little Bighorn enthusiast

Perhaps this collection suffers a bit from attempting to be all inclusive, but one can forgive the editor for this failing. Col. W.A.Graham, one of the foremost Custer scholars of his generation, was a retired Army lawyer who believed his mission was to present all the available evidence concerning the subject without slanting the presentation to a particular point of view. I'm happy to see Stackpole Books reissue this gem as part of its Custer Library, This book collects, in one volume, some of the most important and interesting contemporary accounts of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, some of which are next to impossible to find anywhere else. Graham includes excerpts from Sioux, Cheyenne, Arikara and Crow Indian accounts of the battle, statements of participants in the battle, excerpts from the letters of Captain Fred Benteen to his wife and to Theodore Goldin, and Lieutenant (later General) Edward Godfrey's classic article on the battle. This is one of the few books every person interested in Custer and the Little Big Horn Battle must have close at hand.