Custer — How Defeat Became an American Myth

Crisis in Perception · Aug 17, 2026 · 43m

Why did the Little Bighorn become far more famous than battles in which vastly more people died?

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world.

Using Custer by Larry McMurtry as our lens, this investigation examines George Armstrong Custer, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the systems that transformed a military defeat into an enduring American legend.

McMurtry argues that the battle mattered because it marked the closing of a much larger narrative of American settlement. Behind Custer's final campaign were expanding railroads, migration, mineral…