Post by markland on Oct 14, 2005 6:46:59 GMT -6
: The Story of the Great Sioux War by Charles Robinson III & Robert D. Loomis.
Found this while looking for some other stuff-which I haven't found yet-and it sounds interesting. Here are two reviews posted at B&N but I am hoping for input from real readers.
Billy
"Publishers Weekly
This is a provocative analysis of the Plains War of 1876 by an established scholar in the field. Making sophisticated use of Native American accounts, Robinson (Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ranald S. Mackenzie) demonstrates that the initial balance of forces was by no means unequal. The U.S. Army did not have the numbers, the doctrine or the leadership to win the kinds of decisive battles it expected to win. Robinson is particularly critical of generals George Crook and George A. Custer and correspondingly complimentary toward such Lakota warrior-statesmen as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The work's centerpiece is the Little Bighorn, where Robinson believes Custer's exhausted men panicked in the face of superior numbers. The battle's principal importance, however, was as a catalyst. In its aftermath, the U.S. made available resources for the kind of attritional war the Plains Indians had no hope of waging successfully. This sympathetic account will appeal especially to those interested in Native American culture and history. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Sept.) "
"BookList - Roland Green
Narrative history does not get much better than this. Too many books on the Great Sioux War of 1876 focus on the late, lamentable George Armstrong Custer. Robinson covers in ample but not excessive detail all the circumstances--broken treaties, gold rushes, and corrupt Indian agents among the foremost--that led to the war. He then describes the course of the war, which was fought as much against climate and terrain as against human foes and in which every degree of skill and courage, from the highest to the totally nonexistent, was exhibited by both sides. We learn that Crazy Horse was not a real generalissimo for the Sioux, that George Crook was not always as good as he has been painted, that the decisive victory of the campaign was probably won by the almost unknown Ranald McKenzie. Throughout, we are entertained while being informed. Superlative."
Found this while looking for some other stuff-which I haven't found yet-and it sounds interesting. Here are two reviews posted at B&N but I am hoping for input from real readers.
Billy
"Publishers Weekly
This is a provocative analysis of the Plains War of 1876 by an established scholar in the field. Making sophisticated use of Native American accounts, Robinson (Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ranald S. Mackenzie) demonstrates that the initial balance of forces was by no means unequal. The U.S. Army did not have the numbers, the doctrine or the leadership to win the kinds of decisive battles it expected to win. Robinson is particularly critical of generals George Crook and George A. Custer and correspondingly complimentary toward such Lakota warrior-statesmen as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The work's centerpiece is the Little Bighorn, where Robinson believes Custer's exhausted men panicked in the face of superior numbers. The battle's principal importance, however, was as a catalyst. In its aftermath, the U.S. made available resources for the kind of attritional war the Plains Indians had no hope of waging successfully. This sympathetic account will appeal especially to those interested in Native American culture and history. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Sept.) "
"BookList - Roland Green
Narrative history does not get much better than this. Too many books on the Great Sioux War of 1876 focus on the late, lamentable George Armstrong Custer. Robinson covers in ample but not excessive detail all the circumstances--broken treaties, gold rushes, and corrupt Indian agents among the foremost--that led to the war. He then describes the course of the war, which was fought as much against climate and terrain as against human foes and in which every degree of skill and courage, from the highest to the totally nonexistent, was exhibited by both sides. We learn that Crazy Horse was not a real generalissimo for the Sioux, that George Crook was not always as good as he has been painted, that the decisive victory of the campaign was probably won by the almost unknown Ranald McKenzie. Throughout, we are entertained while being informed. Superlative."
