A review by lmfm
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

4.0

I thought this was a good overview of Custer and the actions of the 7th Cavalry leading up to (and after) the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I learned a lot, not the least of which is that there are legions of crazed amateur Custer historians. If you fall into that category, this probably isn't the book for you. I knew the basic outline but not the details, and I really learned a lot from Philbrick's account. I thought he did a good job of describing how the whole tragedy of this battle (including that it occurred at all) stemmed from the intersection of disparate personalities, egos, jealousies, and the quest for personal glory. This mostly follows the 7th Cavalry, particulary Reno and Benteen's detachments. Though there is a pretty good treatment of what is happening in the Lakota camp and how Sitting Bull's actions and personality lead to the Lakota victory, I would have appreciated more of this perspective.