Even in his lifetime, George Armstrong Custer was controversial. He was ambitious and flamboyant as well as courageous and talented. Though largely remembered for his death at the Little Bighorn, T.J. Stiles' paints a fuller picture of Custer's colorful and complicated life. Stiles says Custer lived at a “frontier in time.” He helped usher in the modern American era, but couldn't quite adapt to the modernity he helped create. Stiles joins us Thursday to talk about his new book "Custer's Trials." (Rebroadcast)
Our previously scheduled program for Thursday, a conversation with historian Pamela Haag about America's gun culture, encountered insurmountable technical problems. We've rescheduled that interview for tomorrow Friday 29 April.
TJ Stiles won the Pulitzer-prize in biography for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. [Indiebound|Amazon]. His new book is called Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America [Indiebound|Amazon], and it earned Stiles the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History.