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 Custer's Last Stand, the June 1876
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 Union's 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 government's 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.