Custer's Trials

A Life on the Frontier of a New America

By: T.J. Stiles

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History

From the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, 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.

A incitful picture of a very different america,

I found this book very illuminatin. The incite into these characters, personalities, never failed to make me want to think about these peoples lives problem contrasted to ours today. Read the book, It's worth the education.

masterpiece

wonderful telling of custers life, rather than the last hour or so for shich he is best known. a very flawed, very human but very very engaged, passionate man who clearly reflected the ethos of the times. fantastic book and HIGHLY recommened.

Last in His Class

This is swell done eye opener. I learned a lot and it has changed my thinking. Really held my attention .

23 Hrs and 44 minutes of Enjoyed Listening

Ive always been fascinated by George Armstrong Custer. My father took our family on a trip in the Summer of 1968, from California to Boston, Shiloh Battlefield and Gettysburg Battlefield, Washington D.C., West Point, the "grassy knoll" of Dallas and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana, as well as the Yellowstone National Park. We also visited the Alamo. To me as a child there were three disasters that were fascinating: the Alamo, Little Bighorn and the Titanic. When reading the same book my wife said I should look at a map of the battlefield to get an idea of the battle while reading. Ive been there as a child and the memory is seared into my brain, as well as the books, movies and maps Iv studied over the years. I didn't need any map. This book compares George Custer to authors, finance experts, soldiers, politicians, discussing the writings of Mark Twain and famous people of ancient thought and modern thought. You get a great idea of who he is and why, and compare him to many others. I greatly enjoyed the book and importantly feel a better and more intelligent person for reading this book.

civil war and indian war in the eye of General Cus

first I profess, as a foreigner, i never heard of George Armstrong Custer. it is the interest of lincohn and civil and Authur Morey's performance in lincohn, the prairie years and war years brought me to this journey. what a journey it is!
Stiles's impeccable research and prowess of narration and prose reenacted the unique, painful and sinful history of america.

general custer is like most of us, not sort of ambition and fleeting lucks. what he missed or omitted as the nation did, is the moral compass and dare I say, the moral high ground.

OMG, what the murderous bullet never found the skull of Lincohn!