Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read all the glowing reviews here of this book. I decided to buy it. That was a mistake. If I could have looked inside this book beforehand, I could have saved myself the money. Let's get one thing straight. This book is NOT a photographic tour of the LBH battlefield. It is basically a history of the battleFIELD in photographs. It takes an old photograph taken some 80-120 years ago and matches it to a modern day photo taken from the same angle. It's two basic themes are: A. "Gee, look how little things have changed in the last 100 years" and B. "Look! they don't have a grave marker where it should be." ALL the photographs, even the current day ones, are in black-and-white. I found this disappointing. The photos are small, average size about 5.5" x 3.75". If you expect to see much detail in a B&W photo this small of a vast battlefield landscape, you'd better get out your magnifying glass. Let's go over a few things this book does NOT show: 1. Contrary to what another reviewer said, there is NO picture of the Crow's Nest. There is one picture of 4 guys standing NEAR the Crow's Nest, and the camera taking the picture is pointing to the northEAST. So not only do you NOT see the Crow's Nest itself, you CANNOT see the view of the Little Big Horn valley from it. 2. There is no photo of the Lone Tepee site. 3. Incredibly there is NOT a single photo of the location of Reno's skirmish line. This alone is a fatal omission. 4. There is NO photo of the timber where Reno made his brief stand (and started his "charge" to the rear). The closest you'll get in this regard is a photo of Charlie Reynold's grave marker. 5. There is no view from Sharpshooter Ridge to the Reno hilltop position. 6. There is no view from Henryville toward Finley Ridge or Calhoun Hill. 7. There is one extra small (4.5" x 3.25") photo of Medicine Tail Coulee ford, and the camera is on the east bank pointed toward the southeast, a rather bizarre angle. 8. No photo of the depression northeast of Custer Ridge where Crazy Horse, White Bull, Lone Bear, and Rain-in-the-Face and others gathered to cut through C and L Companies assembled on Custer Ridge. 9. There is no photo of the big Indian village site west of the LBH river. I could go on (and on and on) but that's enough. You get the idea. If there is not a ~100 year old photo of a particular part of the battlefield, you will not find a present day photo of it in this book. Tourists of ~100 years ago apparently did not take pictures of these more obscure, but still VERY IMPORTANT sites, but they took plenty pictures of Custer Hill. Let's go over what this book has in spades: 1. No less than 54 photos of Custer Hill taken from nearly every point of the compass. If you're really fascinated by where each marker should be, this should interest you. 2. Ten photos of the Cemetery by the Visitor's Center. This has nothing to do with the actual battle at all. Like I said, this book is a photo history of the battleFIELD. Some reviewers have remarked on the text in this book, but the text is not the raison d'etre for this book. This book is all about its photographs. Nobody is going to buy this book for its text. I wish someone would publish a big high-quality color photo book that shows how the battlefield scene unfolded in Reno eyes, Benteen's eyes, Sioux-Cheyenne eyes, and probable Custer's eyes. "Where Custer Fell" doesn't do this. Don't expect it to.