Louise Barnett

Louise Barnett (1938-2021) was an author whose work included a biography of General Custer titled Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer.

Education and employment Barnett had a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Bryn Mawr College (1972) taught as a Professor of American Studies at Rutgers University starting in 1976.

Published works

Barnett's best-known book, Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer (Henry Holt, 1996), won the 1996 John M. Carroll award of the Little Big Horn Associates for best book on Custer related studies. The New York Times Book Review commented "There is much unusual and useful information about life on the plains, Indian warfare, the danger and fear of captivity by Indians, and especially, the relationship between Custer and his wife."

The book led to a number of television appearances by Barnett on the topic, including an A&E network Custer biography and the C-SPAN show Booknotes. Touched by Fire was reissued in 2006 in softcover by the University of Nebraska Press. More recently, Barnett published Atrocity and American Military Justice in Southeast Asia (Routledge, UK, 2010) – a book which examines the prosecution of war crime trials in the Philippines and Vietnam.