Robert M. Utley

Biography

Robert M. Utley served for 25 years with the National Park Service and other federal agencies. Since his retirement in 1980, he has devoted himself to historical research and writing. His specialty is the history of the American West. His career in history began at Custer Battlefield National Monument, Montana, where he served for six summers during his college years. From 1954 to 1957 he was a historian with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense, both as an army officer and as a civilian. In 1957 he returned to the National Park Service to serve, successively, as Regional Historian of the Southwest Region in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Chief Historian in Washington, D.C.; Director, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation; and as Assistant Director of the National Park Service for Park Historic Preservation. From 1977 to 1980 he was Deputy Executive Director of the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. In 1971 he received the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award.

Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier

George Armstrong Custer. The name evokes instant recognition in almost every American and in people around the world. No figure in the history of the American West has more powerfully moved the human imagination.

When originally published in 1988, Cavalier in Buckskin met with critical acclaim. Now Robert M. Utley has revised his best-selling biography of General George Armstrong Custer. In his preface to the revised edition, Utley writes about his summers (1947-1952) spent as a historical aide at the Custer Battlefield-as it was then known-and credits the work of several authors whose recent scholarship has illuminated our understanding of the events of Little Bighorn. He has revised or expanded chapters, added new information on sources, and revised the map of the battlefield.

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Interview with Robert Utley

Utley memoir