Custer's Trials

A Life on the Frontier of a New America

By: T.J. Stiles

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2015 T. J. Stiles (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Spectacular...a satisfying portrait of a complex, controversial military man.... Confidently presenting Custer in all his contradictions, Stiles examines the times to make sense of the man - and uses the man to shed light on the times." (Publishers Weekly)

"Stiles doesn't disappoint with this powerful, provocative biography.... A highly recommended modern biography that successfully illuminates the lives of Custer and his family as part of the changing patterns of American society." (Library Journal)

"A warts-and-all portrait.... Stiles digs deep to deliver genuine insight into a man who never adapted to modernity." (Kirkus Reviews)

Custer and his times

My interest in General Custer had mostly been related to his service during the Civil War and all of my reading that touched on his life had been concerned with that period. However I recently watched one of the old Western movies that described his life and, knowing that it was pure nonsense, it made me realize that I knew very little of his life after the end of the Civil War except for his death at the Little Bighorn. Hence the purchase of this book.

I believed this to be a biography of George A Custer and, to some extent, it was precisely that. However Mr Stiles has also given us a broad view of life during Custer's lifetime and that broad view helps to explain much of what Custer did and why. The book starts with Custer's application to and acceptance at West Point, follows his life through West Point, through his life on George McClellan's military staff and his appointment as a general and his first commands. It then describes his life after the Civil War, his re-entry into the military and his life through various commands until his assignment to the 7th Cavalry and the battle of the Little Big Horn.

The book is long (at 23+ hours), but is never boring. Along with Custer's life the author takes time to describe the changes taking place in that nation so we have a good and detailed explanation of President Johnson's conflict with the Republican congress after the end of the Civil War, the reasons for his impeachment, Custer's meddling in politics and his opposition to the reconstruction policies of President Grant, the influence of the rise of a new type of capitalism and the Vanderbilts, Goulds and the Guilded Age, Custer's literary attempts and the failures of his attempts to make money in speculation. There is also a great deal of time spent on the problems Custer had with his military and civilian superiors Grant, Sherman and Sheridan toward the end of his career.

This is a very good book and provides a clear picture of what life was like in the middle to late 19th century, but in my view it is tarnished by the author's unwillingness to avoid psychoanalyzing Custer and inventing motives for his actions. A good deal of information comes from Custer's letters to his life Elizabeth as well as to his friends and other family and these make fascinating reading. Custer opposed the attempts by the Federal Government to protect the liberated slaves and to ensure that they had the vote and should be rightly judged for his segregationist views and his attempts to oppose Reconstruction, but the author should also understand that Custer was not alone among northerners with these views and that the age was one of common opposition to equality. It is right to judge Custer, but not to judge Custer alone.

The book is narrated wonderfully by Author Morey and I recommend it for anyone with an interest in the middle to late 19th century in the United States.

Wonderful biography

The definitive work on Custer. The narrator does a fine job but gets a little monotone at times.

too long

Could have gotten the same messages and much of the same content into 18 hours or less. Someone needed to do a hard edit, which would have vastly improved the book. For example, does anyone really care about (or remember) the details of Custer's stock market shenanigans?

A caricature becomes a real person

take a dash through late 18th u.s. century military history on the steed of General Custer.

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!

Insightful

Fascinating look at one of America’s most controversial generals. It contextualizes Custer’s actions within the larger changes happening in America during Custer’s life. Well worth the read

Amazing!

It's nice to finally listen to an unbiased view of Custer's life. thank you!

The Custer I never knew

If you are looking for exciting bang bang description of the Little Big Horn, this is not for you. If you are interested in learning about a fascinating person who lived through the most important era of American life, listen to this book.

The Custer we never knew

This book was fascinating to me and that it covered Custer in a way I had not seen before. So much is written about the Battle of the Little Bighorn that that seems to be, understandably so, what we remember about Custer. This book attempts to explain the rationale and thinking of the man and his times. Well written, well performed, and well worth the time. I also enjoyed the story of Elisa Brown. She emerges as a major character in the life of Custer and Libby.,