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ejrathke 's review for:
Crazy Horse and Custer
by Stephen E. Ambrose
This book was sometimes quite painful to read. Had I known at the start that this was written in the 70s, I probably would have skipped it. The thing that kept me going is that I actually did want to know more about Custer and maybe read something similar to what SC Gwynne did with the Comanches, warts and all. What I mean by that, I suppose, is that I wanted a wider look at who these men were. Something Gwynne did very well in his book is recreate the contexts of conquest and extermination. He discusses the Texas Rangers, the Civil War, the development of repeating guns, the collapse of the Spanish and Mexican control in what's now the American Southwest.
Ambrose doesn't really do that. He does give us a bit of context here and there, but I think he occludes more than he reveals, and it all comes together in a few passages that made me want to throw the book away. His main perspective on this whole saga is that the US did not attempt to do what it was so clearly actively doing to aboriginal people of the north american continent. That being genocide. To Ambrose, this was not genocide because no one tried to exterminate the native people. Rather, in his perspective, this was caused by a mix of bad and out of touch policies in Washington mixed with renegade but realistic people of the frontier who had to protect themselves.
Say what you want about Gwynne's portrayal of this conflict, but he looks downright radically anti-US when compared to Amrbose, who, to me, rather clumsily argues that genocide was accidental.
And part of me could buy this argument if what the US did to native peoples only happened to one tribe or maybe even a handful of tribes. The fact that every north american tribe the US came into contact with either became extinct or was brutally rounded up into concentration camps and then had their culture systematically stripped away speaks to the very real goals of the US government with regard to Native Americans.
That being said, if you can read through the lines of his imperialistic mode, there is a lot of good information here. Again, I think he's not doing enough to actually reveal the time to modern readers, but we at least come to know the two subjects of this book. Though his presentation of Custer seems mostly heroic, with his massive failures somewhat rushed through or de-emphasized, or only emphasized to illustrate how they did not ruin or even impede his aspirations.
But, yeah, there are certainly better books on the subjects of this book. I kept going because I wanted to know more about Custer and specifically how he died at Little Bighorn. I probably could have found something else to get this information, but so it goes. I did read a better book about Crazy Horse last year or maybe the year before, in fact, though I can't remember the name of it.
But, yeah, save your time and find a better book on the subjects, or even look at the wikipedia pages.
Ambrose doesn't really do that. He does give us a bit of context here and there, but I think he occludes more than he reveals, and it all comes together in a few passages that made me want to throw the book away. His main perspective on this whole saga is that the US did not attempt to do what it was so clearly actively doing to aboriginal people of the north american continent. That being genocide. To Ambrose, this was not genocide because no one tried to exterminate the native people. Rather, in his perspective, this was caused by a mix of bad and out of touch policies in Washington mixed with renegade but realistic people of the frontier who had to protect themselves.
Say what you want about Gwynne's portrayal of this conflict, but he looks downright radically anti-US when compared to Amrbose, who, to me, rather clumsily argues that genocide was accidental.
And part of me could buy this argument if what the US did to native peoples only happened to one tribe or maybe even a handful of tribes. The fact that every north american tribe the US came into contact with either became extinct or was brutally rounded up into concentration camps and then had their culture systematically stripped away speaks to the very real goals of the US government with regard to Native Americans.
That being said, if you can read through the lines of his imperialistic mode, there is a lot of good information here. Again, I think he's not doing enough to actually reveal the time to modern readers, but we at least come to know the two subjects of this book. Though his presentation of Custer seems mostly heroic, with his massive failures somewhat rushed through or de-emphasized, or only emphasized to illustrate how they did not ruin or even impede his aspirations.
But, yeah, there are certainly better books on the subjects of this book. I kept going because I wanted to know more about Custer and specifically how he died at Little Bighorn. I probably could have found something else to get this information, but so it goes. I did read a better book about Crazy Horse last year or maybe the year before, in fact, though I can't remember the name of it.
But, yeah, save your time and find a better book on the subjects, or even look at the wikipedia pages.