Philbrick Gets Behind The Scenes Of The Battle of Little Bighorn

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on May 3, 2011 7:40PM

We all remember the Battle of Little Bighorn from some past social studies class, which means we may or may not remember it as a huge defeat for the Army, and one of the last major success for Native Americans before the government pushed them all into reservations a few years later. At the center of the battle were mythical men George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull, the fearless leaders who made it all happen. Nathaniel Philbrick’s book The Last Stand, a New York Times Bestseller that’s now available in paperback, explores the Battle of Little Bighorn with focus on Custer and Sitting Bull. In The Last Stand Philbrick describes similarities between the two opposing men who were strikingly similar. “They both achieved amazing levels of success, but they also had trouble adapting to the conflicting demands of an ever-changing world,” he says on his website. “At one time or another both Custer and Sitting Bull were heroes, but both were also real and vulnerable people for whom the Last Stand was as much a tragedy as a vehicle to eternal fame.”

The Last Stand was a different sort of book for Philbrick, who typically writes non-fiction about sailing, which has won him several big deal awards. This is his first venture into historical non-fiction, and if the reviews on Amazon are any indication he pretty much nailed it.

Thursday May 5, Nathaniel Philbrick at Highland Park Public Library (Talk, PowerPoint, Q&A and signing), 494 Laurel Ave., Highland Park, 7 p.m., free