This book was a clever idea. Write a history of Custer’s life and write another history of Crazy Horse’s life. Combine them into a single book. At different points in their life (e.g., their teenage years), point out some aspects showing how their lives were somewhat similar and how their lives were different. And end the book at the climactic battle where their lives intersect. A clever idea. And done well.

You should be able to find other books that provide a much more complete history of Custer’s life because he was apparently a prolific writer. And any history of Crazy Horse’s life clearly has to be somewhat speculative. Still, the book managed to give both men roughly equal coverage. That balance was key to making this book work for me.

You not only learn about the men, you also learn about the times they lived in. So, for example, you learn that the army saw the white buffalo hunters, combined with the railroads, as a means for wiping out the massive buffalo herds. By doing so, they destroyed the Indians’ primary source of food, clothing and shelter. Thus pending starvation forced the Indians to move onto reservations - where the whites then provided for them (in a substandard way).

Interesting history, cleverly packaged.

Excellent telling of a strong story. Lots of interesting threads to follow up, too.

The US Government reneged on treaties and promises throughout the exploitation of the West, eventually leaving all the tribes in poverty on reservations.

Good background on the changing circumstances of America in the 1800s, and on the naked ambition which Custer lived his life by : his regular toast was "Promotion! Or Death!"

Custer's wife, Libbie, was a strong-minded lady. Her father disapproved of Custer. She wrote to him with words which should be on the mantelpiece of every father of daughters : "Father, you cannot understand, as you were never a girl".

Crazy Horse did all he could for his people but was finally undone by politicking between the factions of natives already on the reservations and by the US Government.

It was an interesting book, but not quite as captivating a read for me as Undaunted Courage by the same author.

Very good. Sad. But a terrific book.

This entire book I read aloud to someone.

Overall, I found the topic to be interesting, and certainly very in-depth. Learning about the lives of Custer and Crazy Horse showed me how little I actually knew about both. The author seemed fair in pointing out the strengths and follies of both men, and to some extent, both cultures.

Fascinating and worth reading for the history, but there are so many books out there chronicling both Crazy Horse and Custer that I'm guessing one could find something more enjoyable that's just as informative. I'm wishing I'd gone with Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand instead.

This is a dual biography of Crazy Horse and Custer, comparing and contrasting the two men. I was not all that familiar with the Battle of Little Bighorn, but I was under the distinct impression that was over hyped, as were the two leaders involved. But my dad got this as an audiobook, so I went ahead and listened to it.

This book was well written, and it was interesting to see the men compared. I did, however, take issue with several things. One was his handling of Custer's Civil War service. Ambrose says basically that there was too much of it, so he'll just summarize Custer as a man rather than going battle by battle. This is rather frustrating as he goes event by event over much less interesting periods of his life. But then he gets to the climactic part of his life and decides to skim over it. Bad decision.

I felt like that most of the book was far too pro Indian. For example, in one section comparing their career choices he talks about how Crazy Horse was free to do whatever he wanted in their culture while Custer was limited by all the strictures of society. But he completely failed to emphasize in any way the fact that Crazy Horses's entire career was built on taking from others. Everything he produced he got it from attacking other tribes and taking their things for himself. Christianity certainly condemns it, but it seems like even humanism should realize that that way of life causes vast amounts of misery and is ultimately a wicked way to live.

But then I came to another section that was the exact opposite. He was arguing that the fact that America was expanding and taking land from the Indians, using whatever lies and deceit necessary was fine. They wanted it, so in a manifest destiny sort of way, it was fine that they ultimately took it. This I don't agree with either. While the Indian culture was flawed in many many ways and deserved to loose out to the American culture, influenced as it was by Christian culture, that doesn't excuse stealing Indian land, lying to them, or making unprovoked war upon them.

So all in all I took serious issue with some of the author's positions.

There were one or two anatomical references in this book that I did not feel were appropriate.