George Armstrong Custer, one of the most familiar figures of 19th-century American history, is known almost exclusively as a soldier, his brilliant military career culminating in catastrophe at Little Bighorn. But Custer, author James E. Mueller suggests, had the soul of an artist, not of a soldier. Ambitious Honor elaborates this radically new perspective, arguing that an artistic passion for creativity and recognition drove Custer to success and, ultimately, to the failure that has overshadowed his notable achievements.

Custer's ambition is well known and played itself out on the battlefield and in his persistent quest for recognition. Ambitious Honor provides the context for understanding how Custer's theatrical personality took shape and thrived, beginning with his training at a teaching college before he entered West Point. Ambitious Honor offers a close look at Custer's work as a best-selling author right up to the time of his death, when he was writing another book and planning a speaking tour after the 1876 campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne.

This nuanced portrait, for the first time delineating his sense of image, whether as creator or consumer, forever alters Custer's own image in our view.

The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"A fresh and lively look at George Armstrong Custer…I thoroughly enjoyed this book." (James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn)