The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Softcover

Nathaniel Philbrick, is a leading authority on the history of Nantucket Island. His In the Heart of the Sea won the National Book Award. His latest book is Sea of Glory, about the epic U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842. His other books include Away off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 (which Russell Baker called "indispensable") and Abram's Eyes: The Native American Legend of Nantucket Island ("a classic of historical truthtelling," according to Stuart Frank, director of the Kendall Whaling Museum). He has written an introduction to a new edition of Joseph Hart's Miriam Coffin, or The Whale Fisherman, a Nantucket novel (first published in 1834) that Melville relied upon for information about the island when writing Moby Dick.

Philbrick, a champion sailboat racer, has also written extensively about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor (1987) and the forthcoming Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor's Odyssey. He was editor in chief of the classic Yaahting: A Parody (1984).

In his role as director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies, Philbrick, who is also a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association, gives frequent talks about Nantucket and sailing. He has appeared on "NBC Today Weekend", A&E's "Biography" series, and National Public Radio and has served as a consultant for the movie "Moby Dick", shown on the USA Network. He received a bachelor of Arts from Brown University and a Master of Arts in American Literature from Duke. He lives on Natucket with his wife and two children.

Nathaniel Philbrick brings a sailor's eye and an extraordinary knowledge of nineteenth-century maritime life to the landlocked tragedy of Custer and Sitting Bull. It's hard to miss the parallels between Custer's fate and that of the sailors on the ill-fated whaling ship ESSEX, as recounted in Philbrick's notable IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. In THE LAST STAND, the polyglot army on the alien plains acts and drinks like the crew of a whaling ship. Philbrick sorts through the extensive and often-contradictory evidence of what happened at the Little Bighorn. Much of his narrative focuses on accounts of the battle. George Guidall provides an avuncular delivery as he tells the long and complicated story in a gruff, clear, and unhurried voice. Understanding what happened at the Little Bighorn requires a map. There are many available on the Internet. F.C. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine