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Post by Diane Merkel on Mar 11, 2007 10:01:42 GMT -6
An LBHA member wrote: "BBC History Magazine of Feb 2007 has a nice article on Custer's Last Stand by Gavin Mortimer. Goes along with BBC's The Wild West 3-part series."
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Post by elisabeth on Mar 11, 2007 12:01:43 GMT -6
For those who can't get hold of it: yes, not a bad article as a basic grounding in the issues. As with the BBC programme, it uses Mike Donahue as its main source of quotes; again as with the BBC programme, he pushes the line that Benteen dragged his feet -- but he does say that "Benteen was certainly not the 'bad guy' at the Big Horn".
The article is pinned to a did-personality-clashes-affect-the-outcome? theme. But it's got some decent sidebars on things like the economic context. The only thing where it really falls down on is its map of the battle, which is pretty much incomprehensible (IMHO!).
For anyone interested in history beyond the LBH area, it's a pretty good mag. Not deep -- doesn't attempt to be -- but offers a good overview of many things, and not all related to BBC output.
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Post by Banned on May 4, 2007 11:06:46 GMT -6
"it uses Mike Donahue as its main source of quotes; again as with the BBC programme, he pushes the line that Benteen dragged his feet"
Mr Donahue is just telling the truth.
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Post by elisabeth on May 4, 2007 12:17:06 GMT -6
But he's not when he says "Benteen was certainly not the 'bad guy' at the Big Horn"?
We can all pick and choose our evidence however we wish. This is where we get into the murky waters of human nature. Benteen screwed up? Yes -- I believe he did, and I believe he knew he did. Did he do it deliberately and with evil intent? No, and a thousand times no. For one thing, he had friends in Custer's battalion; for another, his own pride wouldn't let him willingly preside over a disaster.
It's the same old problem of black-and-white versus grey areas. Black-and-white is very comforting; it allows one to applaud or hate with equal fervour. Grey is the reality, however. And future disasters can't be avoided without an appreciation of grey. In my opinion.
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Post by crzhrs on May 11, 2007 6:46:27 GMT -6
Hindsight is a terrible thing. There must have been many officers who felt they could have done things differently. But at the time they did what they thought was right and that is all you can ask of anyone.
The blame game comes later, especially when things don't turn out as you thought they did.
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