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Rating: 
Summary: Boilerplate
Review: Must us old Custer Buffs be subjected to a rehash of everything we read on the subject dating back to the 1930's and wonder why the same old ground is plowed over and over. I think I know. It makes reputations for PhD's who find it easy to send their graduate students to the library to assemble a (new?) book for them.
It reminds me of Victor Borga's famous act in which he excerpts scraps from the Blue Danube and Shubert's Serendae, plays them, sometimes backward, pastes the scores together, we are told a he goes along, and finally plays the result, which he calls Blue Serenade by Strubert. At least he made no bones about it. Happily it is nearly impossible to compose original music in a library, and unhappily it is easy to appear to compose an original book in a library.
I am waiting for the day that an "uppity" and enterprising graduate student notices that he can use the Library's computers to find relatives of Custer and those who were his associates and do a book about the survivors and what they may be able to find in the attic that hasn't yet been published.
They will have to look for a new "advisor" and perhaps a new school to get their Graduate Degree, but they may get famous in the process.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Collection of Custer Material: A Truely Fun Read
Review: This book is unique in that it provides essays on the numerous facets of Custer's life not only by the participants that knew him but from Custer himself including notable historians that know Custer best. It also covers fascinating facts such as Custer's First Stand at Trevillian Station, a Civil War Battle where Custer was surrounded by Confederate Calavary. Hutton, himself a notable Western Historian, is one of a number of well written essays on the Custer Myth including a critical look at how movies and art portrayed Custer over the years representing the pathos of the nation at that time. The change of view from Erol Flynn's "They Died with Their Boots On" to Richard Mulligan's portrayal in "Little Bighorn" takes a well versed explanation. One of my favorite parts of the book is an essay by Hutton where he explains why in movie director John Ford's "Fort Apache" version of Custer's last stand, John Wayne's character Captain York praises the gallant loss of Colonel Thursday (Custer,) who he actually hated, because York "realized that society understands little of the true motivation of heroes but still needs to idealize them as figures to emulate". This is just not an interesting read but a reflection of how changes in society change perceptions of men and history. By the way, its a fun read!
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