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davidgull's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
3.25
Cool American history, if you're into that kinda thing.
rscottm182gmailcom's review
4.0
Good overview of the major players and events of the Indian wars after the Civil War. Very striking how otherwise honorable men like Sherman and Sheridan never seemed to question the morality of moving entire peoples off their land; how corrupt the Indian agents were as a group; how quickly bands of Indians could move entire communities from one place to another, and how often it was necessary; how often bands could lose everything to soldiers, then somehow recover and re-equip. Made me wonder how I would have carried myself if I had been one of the officers working face-to-face with the chiefs. We white folks did an incredible amount of shit to the tribes.
jeffburns's review
5.0
The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo, and the War For America. H.W. Brands. Doubleday, 2022, 416 pages.
Historian H.W. Brands is another author who can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. The Last Campaign is definitely another winner. I do quibble slightly, however, with whomever is in charge of subtitling books at Doubleday. The title might mislead some people. This book is not really about a clash between military and organizational genius William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo. In fact, Geronimo is totally absent from the majority of the book. Instead, it is a complete and thorough history of the Indian Wars and of the US government's Indian policy in the 19th century. Every treaty, policy, major battle and campaign (and some minor), and personality of significance is dealt with here. Sherman and Geronimo kind of represent the bookends of the period, with Sherman becoming Commanding General of the Army in 1869, with the chief responsibility of pacifying the West, and Geronimo being the last major symbol of armed resistance as his small Apache band defied American and Mexican troops until he was forced to surrender in 1886.
The Last Campaign is great history, as I have come to expect from Brands. Whether the reader is looking for an introduction to the subject of the Indian Wars or the reader is already very knowledgeable about the subject, this book will inform, educate, and entertain.
Historian H.W. Brands is another author who can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. The Last Campaign is definitely another winner. I do quibble slightly, however, with whomever is in charge of subtitling books at Doubleday. The title might mislead some people. This book is not really about a clash between military and organizational genius William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo. In fact, Geronimo is totally absent from the majority of the book. Instead, it is a complete and thorough history of the Indian Wars and of the US government's Indian policy in the 19th century. Every treaty, policy, major battle and campaign (and some minor), and personality of significance is dealt with here. Sherman and Geronimo kind of represent the bookends of the period, with Sherman becoming Commanding General of the Army in 1869, with the chief responsibility of pacifying the West, and Geronimo being the last major symbol of armed resistance as his small Apache band defied American and Mexican troops until he was forced to surrender in 1886.
The Last Campaign is great history, as I have come to expect from Brands. Whether the reader is looking for an introduction to the subject of the Indian Wars or the reader is already very knowledgeable about the subject, this book will inform, educate, and entertain.
ckitchel27's review against another edition
2.0
A good book on the final days of various tribes. Unfortunately, I picked this book to learn more about Geronimo which happened to be a pretty small portion of the book. Many of the other stories I have read other accounts of in more detail than was provided in this book.
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