Custer's Trials
A Life on the Frontier of a New America
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Custer's Trials
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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T.J. Stiles
About this listen
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History
From the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, a brilliant biography of Gen. George Armstrong Custer that radically changes our view of the man and his turbulent times.
In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person - capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
The key to understanding Custer, Stiles writes, is keeping in mind that he lived on a frontier in time. In the Civil War, the West, and many areas overlooked in previous biographies, Custer helped to create modern America, but he could never adapt to it. He freed countless slaves yet rejected new civil rights laws. He proved his heroism but missed the dark reality of war for so many others. A talented combat leader, he struggled as a manager in the West. He tried to make a fortune on Wall Street yet never connected with the new corporate economy. Native Americans fascinated him, but he could not see them as fully human. A popular writer, he remained apart from Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and other rising intellectuals.
During Custer’s lifetime, Americans saw their world remade. His admirers saw him as the embodiment of the nation’s gallant youth, of all that they were losing; his detractors despised him for resisting a more complex and promising future. Intimate, dramatic, and provocative, this biography captures the larger story of the changing nation in Custer’s tumultuous marriage to his highly educated wife, Libbie; their complicated relationship with Eliza Brown, the forceful Black woman who ran their household; as well as his battles and expeditions. It casts surprising new light on a near-mythic American figure, a man both widely known and little understood.
©2015 T. J. Stiles (P)2015 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Spectacular...a satisfying portrait of a complex, controversial military man.... Confidently presenting Custer in all his contradictions, Stiles examines the times to make sense of the man - and uses the man to shed light on the times." (Publishers Weekly)
"Stiles doesn't disappoint with this powerful, provocative biography.... A highly recommended modern biography that successfully illuminates the lives of Custer and his family as part of the changing patterns of American society." (Library Journal)
"A warts-and-all portrait.... Stiles digs deep to deliver genuine insight into a man who never adapted to modernity." (Kirkus Reviews)
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General Stonewall Jackson was like no one anyone had ever seen. In April of 1862 he was merely another Confederate general with only a single battle credential in an army fighting in what seemed to be a losing cause. By middle June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western World. He had given the Confederate cause what it had recently lacked: hope.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Candidate for "My Daguerreotype Boyfriend"
- By Anonymous User on 01-10-15
By: S. C. Gwynne
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The Man Who Saved the Union
- Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 27 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 500
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 435
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 436
Ulysses Grant rose from obscurity to discover he had a genius for battle, and he propelled the Union to victory in the Civil War. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the disastrous brief presidency of Andrew Johnson, America turned to Grant again to unite the country, this time as president. In Brands' sweeping, majestic full biography, Grant emerges as a heroic figure who was fearlessly on the side of right.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Underrated hero
- By Tad Davis on 12-22-12
By: H. W. Brands
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War
- By: H. W. Crocker III
- Narrated by: Bill Wallace
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 599
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 479
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 476
Get ready for a rousing rebel yell as best-selling author H. W. Crocker III charges through bunkers and battlefields in The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. Crocker busts myths and shatters stereotypes as he profiles eminent and colorful military generals, revealing little-known truths, like why Robert E. Lee had a higher regard for African-Americans than Lincoln did.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The American Civil War Made Simple
- By Vincent Tume on 12-18-08
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Rise to Greatness
- Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year
- By: David Von Drehle
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
As 1862 dawned, the American republic was at death’s door. The federal government appeared overwhelmed, the U.S. Treasury was broke, and the Union’s top general was gravely ill. The Confederacy - with its booming economy, expert military leadership, and commanding position on the battlefield - had a clear view to victory. To a remarkable extent, the survival of the country depended on the judgment, cunning, and resilience of the unschooled frontier lawyer who had recently been elected president. Twelve months later, the Civil War had become a cataclysm but the tide had turned.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Deep Dive into 1862
- By Anonymous User on 01-13-16
By: David Von Drehle
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366 Days in Abraham Lincoln's Presidency
- The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America's Greatest President
- By: Stephen Wynalda
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
For the first time ever, the intimate thoughts and political decisions of Abraham Lincoln’s entire presidency - day by day. In a startlingly innovative format, journalist Stephen A. Wynalda has constructed a painstakingly detailed day-by-day breakdown of president Abraham Lincoln’s decisions in office - including his signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862; his signing of the legislation enacting the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861; and more personal incidents like the day his 11-year-old son, Willie, died.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great for listening!
- By Anonymous User on 02-12-18
By: Stephen Wynalda
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1864
- Lincoln at the Gates of History
- By: Charles Bracelen Flood
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4 out of 5 stars 71
At the beginning of 1864, the Civil War was far from won; terrible and bloody Union setbacks and casualties lay ahead. Abraham Lincoln was facing a re-election battle as some northern Democrats were ready to start peace talks that could leave the Confederacy a separate slaveholding American nation and as his secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, challenged him for the Republican nomination. But by the end of the year, the war's end was in sight, and slavery was on the verge of extinction.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterful and necessary book!
- By 9S on 12-03-09
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Union 1812
- The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence
- By: A. J. Langguth
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 98
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Story4 out of 5 stars 100
This dramatic account of the War of 1812 fills a surprising gap in the popular literature of the nation's formative years. It is this war, followed closely on the War of Independence, that established the young nation as a permanent power and proved its claim to Manifest Destiny.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic narrative history
- By Tad on 03-22-12
By: A. J. Langguth
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Valley Forge
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 375
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
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Story5 out of 5 stars 339
Valley Forge is the riveting true story of an underdog US toppling an empire. Using new and rarely seen contemporaneous documents - and drawing on a cast of iconic characters and remarkable moments that capture the innovation and energy that led to the birth of our nation - the New York Times best-selling authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin provide a breathtaking account of this seminal and previously undervalued moment in the battle for American independence.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Moving story about saving the Revolution
- By LEE on 11-15-18
By: Bob Drury, and others
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Nathan Hale
- The Life and Death of America's First Spy
- By: M. William Phelps
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
In this impressive, well-researched biography, Phelps separates historical fact from long-standing myth to reveal the life of Nathan Hale, a young man who deserves to be remembered as an original American patriot. Using Hale's own journals and letters as well as testimonies from his friends and contemporaries, Phelps depicts the Revolution as it was seen from the ground.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Nathan Hale
- By Phillip Goodson on 05-03-09
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Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 13,362
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,593
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Story5 out of 5 stars 11,535
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A sad day when my book was done!
- By Anonymous User on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
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Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life will always be part of our American education.
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A Cultural History is not a biography
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Devil in the Grove
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,338
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Arguably the most important American lawyer of the 20th century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the US Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and to cost him his life. In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve....
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5 out of 5 stars
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the fight for civil rights
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The Unvanquished
- The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby's Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America's Special Operations
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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The Civil War is most remembered for the grand battles that have come to define it: Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, among others. However, as bestselling author Patrick K. O’Donnell reveals in The Unvanquished, a vital shadow war raged amid and away from the major battlefields that was in many ways equally consequential to the conflict’s outcome.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A little known gem
- By Jonathan R. Jones on 09-01-24
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Son of the Morning Star
- By: Evan S. Connell
- Narrated by: Adrian Cronauer
- Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 278
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This national best-seller vividly reconstructs one of the most unbelievable and controversial battles in American military history—General Custer’s Last Stand in 1876. Why would a seasoned leader like Custer lead 200 U.S. Army soldiers into battle against 2,000 Native American warriors? The answer lies in this book, which captures in stunning detail the heroism, foolishness, and brutality that led to this legendary battle.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, but...
- By Arthur Everett on 08-01-12
By: Evan S. Connell
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Custer
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry crafts works synonymous with the grandeur and beauty of the American West. Here McMurtry turns his attention to George A. Custer, a complex man who has captivated historians for over a century. From graduating last in his class at West Point to leading the ill-fated 7th Cavalry in the attack at Little Bighorn, Custer forged a legacy - still very much alive today - as one of the West's most enduring historical figures.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A story that needed to be told!
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The Black Count
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,103
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General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The story behind the greatest novelist of all time
- By Melinda on 01-13-13
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Abe
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 213
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Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life will always be part of our American education.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Cultural History is not a biography
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