A Good Year to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War - Hardcover

Robinson III, Charles M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679430253 ISBN 13: 9780679430254

Publisher: Random House, 1995

Synopsis

This is the dramatic story of the most crucial year in the history of the American West, 1876, when the wars between the United States Government and the Indian Nations reached a peak. Telling a great deal about Indian cultures, history, beliefs and personality, this is the first book to cover the whole year, rather than simply its components. 16-page photo insert. 3 maps.

About this title

From 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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The Sioux battle cry is Hoka Key!, or "It's a good day to die!" The year to die, 1876, is the pivotal year in the Sioux wars, when record numbers of soldiers and Native Americans died; it is also the year of Custer's defeat, causing a newly aware and outraged public to demand an accelerated war against the Natives. Robinson (Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ronald S. Mackenzie, LJ 3/1/93) traces battles, describes rivalries and self-promotion by officers, and discusses the press and public opinion at this crucial time, debunking mythology. His well-founded overview of the Sioux wars, drawn from manuscripts, archaeology, military records, and newspapers, joins other recent recommended works such as Jerome Greene's Yellowstone Command (LJ 4/1/92), a military history of Gen. Nelson Miles's command, and Robert M. Utley's The Lance and the Shield (LJ 6/15/93), a biography of Sitting Bull. Recommended for public libraries.?Margaret W. Norton, J. Sterling Morton H.S., Berwyn, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679430253
• ISBN 13: 9780679430254
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 412