- Unknown Binding: 428 pages
- Publisher: Hastings House (1955)
- Language English
- ASIN: B0007EA874
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is probably the most comprehensive biography of an Indian leader that I have ever read. The research is painstaking. The book was written in novel form and makes for an excellent read. Although there are no pictures of Crazy Horse, Ms Sandoz' first hand information from people who knew him creates an indelible snapshot of the man. He was a mystic, a visionary, a defender of his people, a modest man, who wore no fancy regalia, who never bragged after he had accomplished something great. His own people were ambivalent about him, and called him the Strange One or the Silent One. Moreover, he had fair complexion with light hair and brown eyes. He wanted desperately for his people to speak with one mind and with one heart. But the divisions within the Lakota people were simply too strong. What is most interesting is the tension between Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. Red Cloud is not painted in a positive light in this book. He is shown as petty, jealous and desperate to show up Crazy Horse. Wherein Crazy Horse was a 'natural' at everything he did, it was not so with Red Cloud who was forced to live under the specter of Crazy Horse's natural aptitude, particularly in matters of war. As a matter of fact he was one of the Lakota that held Crazy Horse down when he was fatally stabbed in 1877 by a white guard at Fort Robinson (Crazy Horse's vision as a young boy had prophesized his murder at the hands of his own people). Red Cloud is much lauded for being the only Native American to beat the cavalry soundly (Fetterman fight). In fact, it was the brilliant strategist Crazy Horse that won that fight. He had learned the ways of the white man in terms of war tactics and applied them brilliantly. Crazy Horse was certainly not without his faults, the matter of running away with another man's wife springs to mind. The Author is scrupulously fair in her assessment of him and of the time in which they lived. In the end Crazy Horse was not able to unify his people - he had his followers, and Red Cloud had his. The book is elegrantly written, paints a thorough picture of a tragic time in American history as natives ultimately fell into poverty, starvation and despair. The buffalo was gone. As noted in the preamble to the book, Natives of Turtle Island, were the victims of 'historical inevitability'. Ho.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For two years in college, I studied with Stephen B. Oates, who wrote the Foreword to this edition. An award-winning biographer of Lincoln, King, Nat Turner, John Brown, and others, Oates often told his classes that in his opinion, Mari Sandoz's Crazy Horse was the best biography ever written. His chief reason was Ms. Sandoz's ability to make the reader feel as though he or she is in the actual time and place where Crazy Horse lived, and the quality and style of her language, which has the feel of an oral history told by an Oglala elder at a ritual ceremony. I first read the book in Oates' class in 1985 then recently bought the newer edition with his contribution and read it again. Oates is a very wise man (and an extraordinary writer himself!).
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book some days ago, and I am deeply impressed on both the life of Crazy Horse and the way Ms. Sandoz told it to the reader. Since long I have been reading books about Plains Indians and their wars and had a special interest in the person of Crazy Horse. But I had not expected that this strange man, hardly to be understood by his own people, would have become so vivid to me. Ms. Sandoz book is by far better than that of Stephen E. Ambrose who often quoted her, because unlike him she was able to tell it from the Indian point of view and did not always evaluate what she wrote about. Crazy Horse was an Indian hero as out of a Greek tragedy alway doing the best for his people but condemned to be beaten by unmeasureably stronger forces than those of his people. I think he will keep in my heart and brain.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too bias?
Excellently written, easy to read and easy to believe. No doubt, Sandoz has created a timeless classic historial account on the most bravest, loyal and enigmatic sioux warrior... Read more
Published on 31 July 2003
Hmmmm....an inspirational story, perhaps.....
Mari Sandoz' book is certainly a poetic read and a good story, but ultimately unsatisfactory. Compared to a more 'historical' approach to biography - Utley, for example, & his 'The... Read more
Published on 21 May 2003 by steviebee
what a book what a hero and what a waste of a real leader
I have read quite a few books about the American Indian and I can say this is one of the best from the time I received the book I couldent put it down. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2000 by ghengiskhan@madasafish.com
An Epic worth reading
I am normally the type of person who has no patience for epic tales. When an author gets too long winded, I jump to the end. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 1999
It doesn't do a good job of grabbing your attention.
I'm the kind of person who loves a book that makes you want to never put it down.This book is nothing of the type. Read more
Published on 19 April 1999
It helped me understand a culture of a misrepresented people
I have lived in Nebraska and Wyoming all of my life and currently enjoy hunting the same lands as Crazy Horse. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 1998
Brilliant
It is great to find a book that tells the life story of one of the greatest leaders in history from an indian point of view. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 1998
I read Crazy Horse 25 years ago
as part of an undergraduate course on revolutionary heroes. As I came to the end of the book, I put it down so that Crazy Horse would still be alive in my imagination. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 1998
The story of Crazy Horse in the language of the Indian.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Not only did I hear the story of the great warrior Crazy Horse but I heard it in a style distinctly Indian. I am certain I will read it again soon!
Published on 16 July 1998
This book should be read by any boy age 10 and up
An incredible telling of the inspirational life of a great leader. Moving and well told. A must read for anyone who has ever felt that they didn't fit in, particularly those who... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 1998
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