Louise Barnett is the author of seven books, including a biography of General Custer titled Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer (1996).

Education and employment

Barnett has a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Bryn Mawr College (1972) and has taught as a Professor of American Studies at Rutgers University since 1976.^[1]

Published works

External videos
Booknotes interview with Barnett on Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer, October 13, 1996, C-SPAN

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.^[2] 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."^[3]

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.^[4] Most recently, Barnett has 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.