Books
Custer’s Trials – a biography by T. J. Stiles

Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America is the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History. T. J. Stiles, the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, writes a brilliant biography of Gen. George Armstrong Custer that radically changes our view of the man and his turbulent times.
In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person—capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
The key to understanding Custer, Stiles writes, is keeping in mind that he lived on a frontier in time. In the Civil War, the West, and many areas overlooked in previous biographies, Custer helped to create modern America, but he could never adapt to it. He freed countless slaves yet rejected new civil rights laws. He proved his heroism but missed the dark reality of war for so many others. A talented combat leader, he struggled as a manager in the West.
He tried to make a fortune on Wall Street yet never connected with the new corporate economy. Native Americans fascinated him, but he could not see them as fully human. A popular writer, he remained apart from Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and other rising intellectuals. During Custer’s lifetime, Americans saw their world remade. His admirers saw him as the embodiment of the nation’s gallant youth, of all that they were losing; his detractors despised him for resisting a more complex and promising future. Intimate, dramatic, and provocative, this biography captures the larger story of the changing nation in Custer’s tumultuous marriage to his highly educated wife, Libbie; their complicated relationship with Eliza Brown, the forceful black woman who ran their household; as well as his battles and expeditions. It casts surprising new light on a near-mythic American figure, a man both widely known and little understood.
-
News1 month ago
Offer Price, Overview, Investors: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Asyad Shipping’s Mega IPO
-
OER Magazines1 month ago
OER, February 25
-
Automotive2 months ago
[REVIEW] A Legend Reinvented: The Nissan Patrol Y63 Blends Heritage with Modern Mastery
-
Alamaliktistaad Magazines1 month ago
Al-iktisaad, February 2025
-
Energy1 month ago
Dubai Supreme Council of Energy Unveils 5th Emirates Energy Award 2023–2025 in Muscat
-
News2 months ago
Oil Prices Rise as Investors Assess New US Tariff Threats
-
News2 months ago
Middle East Emerging as a Key Destination for Sports Tourism
-
News1 month ago
Shell Oman Marketing Company Hosts the 1st Lubricants Technology Conference in Muscat
You must be logged in to post a comment Login