The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Watch a video Read discussion questions for The Last Stand The bestselling author of Mayflower sheds new light on one of the iconic stories of the American West Little Bighorn and Custer are names synonymous in the American imagination with unmatched bravery and spectacular defeat Mythologized as Custers Last Stand the June battle has been equated with other famous last stands from the Spartans defeat at Thermopylae to Davy Crockett at the Alamo In his tightly structured narrative Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly sketches the two larger-than-life antagonists Sitting Bull whose charisma and political savvy earned him the position of leader of the Plains Indians and George Armstrong Custer one of the Unions greatest cavalry officers and a man with a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage Philbrick reminds readers that the Battle of the Little Bighorn was also even in victory the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations Increasingly outraged by the governments Indian policies the Plains tribes allied themselves and held their ground in southern Montana Within a few years of Little Bighorn however all the major tribal leaders would be confined to Indian reservations Throughout Philbrick beautifully evokes the history and geography of the Great Plains with his characteristic grace and sense of drama The Last Stand is a mesmerizing account of the archetypal story of the American West one that continues to haunt our collective imagination.