Stiles overstates his case that Custer's entire life beyond his Army exploits, resonated with Americans as symbolic of the nation's struggle with its split personality - between its traditional self image as individualistic, romantic hero-worship, and advent of the modern, corporate, technological world that levels and depersonalizes. Custer's youthful rise to glory and fame in the Civil War and Indian Wars did captivate Americans' nostalgic lament. But Custer's unsuccessful forays into politics, Wall Street high finance, and intellectual writing, were not a reflection of a lost romantic individualism, nor a failure to adapt to modernity. Rather Custer was narrowly educated and trained to be a soldier, while his battlefield experience taught that given limited intelligence on the enemy, the wild cavalry charge was preferred over hestitation and second-guessing. Custer wildly charged into the subtlies of politics, without sophistication for stock speculations, nor patient study in the literary craft. Otherwise, Stiles hits the target that Custer's self-styled portrayal as a gallant, flamboyant, and glory-hunting cavalry leader, was a spellbinding throwback to the mists of time where the heroism of medieval knights, magically escaping death, were prized leaders within the realm. Stiles also omits that the romantic-modern conflict in the mid-1900s (reacting to the 1800s rationalist Enlightenment), also engulfed European culture in literature, arts, and music - not just America. Stiles believes America is a special case - Custer was an exaggerated romantic, and so too our manifest destiny to civilize the vast wilderness nourished national character traits (Turner's frontier thesis argued). Perhaps the romantic-modern dilemma is reflected in culture today on a steady diet of old west, cowboy movies and literature; Presidents wearing cowboy hats and boots, the very popular award-winning 2015 movie The Revenant reminds us of our DNA in this 1820s romantic heroism of a fur trapper-mountainman, after a grizzly bear mauling, and abandoned by his companions, survives to seek revenge.I agree with Stiles' revisionism that Custer is "misrembered by each generation" as a scapegoat for America's inner struggle to reconcile its split personality: Custer either -- defamed modernity as a foolhardy gloryhound who sacrificed highly trained cavalry against barely-stone age primitives yet to discover the wheel-- or defamed the noble warrior ethos by tactical blunders. I agree with Stiles that these are detours from the truth; Custer at Little Big Horn correctly relied on his military skills and tactics of the day, and so too the Army relied on the past in this campaign, to incorrectly presume the feeble and unschooled tribes would not mass numerical superiority, not obtain modern repeating rifles, not stand and engage in pitched battles (as they suddenly did forcing retreat of General Crook's southern column, shortly before the tribes reassembled enmasse at Custer's). The tribes essentially dumbfounded all 3 of the Army's converging columns (Custer spearheading General Terry). The tribes now exhausted, low on ammunition and supplies, cleverly dispursed and disappeared before Col Gibbon's 3rd column arrived (with Terry's remainder). The Army's obsolete Napoleanic doctrine and arrogance were outmatched by mobile guerrilla forces who lethally massed and disbursed in a vast wilderness; natives rallied to a fever pitch by looming extinction of their tribes, culture, and food sources. The Army generally abandoned fighting, left to pestering and hounding the tribes throughout the Winter 1876-77 keeping them on the move, exhausting their food and stamina. Stiles argues that the shock of Custer's massacre, followed by the inability of a modern Army to defeat in battle 'primitive halfwits,' profoundly disturbed Americans- their self-image already struggling with its romantic-modern dilemma. Stiles implies this was projected psychologically to Custer as "his" disaster, not ours...and the misrembering began. Stiles argues, this search for heroic-modern symbols to understand our character, lingers in the 21st century. Stiles expands the biography genre into the larger context of historiography. His theory perhaps, would extend to the gifted but tragic General Patton of WWII - by training a tank commander, the modern successor to cavalry. He too led armor and mobile infantry to shock, and to swift outflanking the enemy. He too cultivated a persona of exaggeration and flamboyance; poetically envisioned himself a reincarnated line of mythic warriors. Yet he never fully adapted to negotiating the glory of victory with modern diplomacy and allied teambuilding. He portrayed the growing evidence of combat PTSD as cowardice. This avoids the modern paradox that soldiers pursuit of glory and heroism (celebrated by society) can make them ill, unfit for service and society. So post-War America, horrified with the atomic age, (now disillusioned with PTSD and recently TBI), nostalgically still feeds on the romance of the heroic myth by re-imagining Patton, Custer, et. al.. This is illustrated with the ceaseless cultural obsession to either re-stigmatize Custer as a lunatic (the movie 'Little Big Man'), or restore his image as the noble hero. The latter targets his 2nd in command Major Reno for cowardice for his chaotic retreat at the battle's start, and mental breakdown. But the truth, as some psychologists believe, is Reno suffered from onset of acute PTSD. His chief Indian Scout standing next to Reno, was struck by a bullet to the head- spraying blood and brains onto Reno who became paralyzed with shock; he began to cry uncontrollably, later claiming to have heard voices in his head (PTSD flashbacks?). He was later convicted twice by court-martial of public drunkenness and indecency, discharged for misconduct in 1880. Reno was a distinguished officer in the civil war witnessing the terrible carnage at Antietam, Gettysburg, and many grisly campaigns, several times wounded, breveted to Brigadier General. He never recovered from the repetitive and accumulated stress, deteriorated mentally, self-medicated with alcohol (aggravating his illness), until a traumatic break in 1876 at the Little Big Horn. His 1967 posthumous upgrade to Honorable discharge, presages the 2014 Defense Department's PTSD upgrade policy for veterans who were misconduct-discharged before it was clinically recognized in 1980. Yet popular culture continues to misremember the truth to vilify Reno (and co-villain Captain Benteen) for destroying the hero myth of Custer that America needs.     Stiles does not so much argue the study of charismatic leaders is interesting alone, but popular obsession may symbolize a deeper, recurring conflict resonating within society. Stiles' book provokes wider thought. It makes Custer's Trials, worth the read. John A. Wickham.