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A review by socraticgadfly
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford, Bryan Burrough
5.0
I, like many others (presumably even a fair amount of Texas natives), got to the Alamo, saw the chapel, and said "This is it?" Yep, it is it.
And, yet, the cornerstone of Texas exceptionalism, tackled in this book.
An entertaining yet serious romp through the history of Alamo history. (Well, to be precise, the history of 1836 and post-1836 history.)
The trio of authors (Note: Tomlinson is an online friend and journalism peer, via his "Tomlinson Hill" book) provide a history of that history, or a history of the legend-making, in pamphlets, books, and in architectural botches (like the "hump" that is not original and comes from the US Army after the Mexican War), and of how this battle eventually was publicly enjoined by Texas Hispanics, Hispanics elsewhere, revisionist Anglos doing good history and more.
Then, especially with the rise of the Tea Party, and the Abbott-Patrick duo heading Texas government, came the backlash.
Most of the modern stuff was not new to me, by any means. And, what actually likely happened at the battle was not new, for the most part, due to having read Philip Tucker Thomas' historically informative but dreck-as-writing book.
That said, because his book is a couple of decades old, I hadn't heard about Travis' alleged attempt at surrendering. It doesn't surprise me, and yes, I assume it's true. And, of course, further undercuts his legend.
A few other things, related to the battle or to San Jacinto, the authors note:
No Yellow Rose (which I knew) but Santa Anna still blew it with no pickets and scouts
Twin Sisters were manned by Fort Jesup “deserters,” and that a few of them were among Alamo dead. New to me.
The irony of Santa Anna trying to stop illegal immigration from the US, which IS exactly what he was doing!
And, THERE is where things turned messy. Austin (and a few Tejanos like Seguin) were trying to keep slavery legal in Mexican Texas. Meanwhile, slaveholders were trying to push across the border. After earlier hesitation to do so, for fears of having slaves confiscated, it appears that in the last year or two before the war, newer Texians said, "dammit, we're coming anyway."
While the battle over the Alamo has long focused on kneecapping the Tejanos who fought for "the cause," the slavery issue has worked its way more and more to the forefront.
And, also, the American Indians buried on the mission grounds, who died as peons there. I knew a bit about this issue, but not a lot.
One or two issues and errors, not huge, and not costing a star, should be noted:
1. Doesn’t note Polk provoking Mexican War and disputes over Texas boundary. This ties with Texas not having enough population to be a Mexican state itself, being joined with Coahuila, and Texas' boundary traditionally having been considered the Nueces, not the Rio Grande.
2. Has an analogy-joke about Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain trying to get on the Titanic. Too bad that wouldn’t work, as Twain was dead two years. (Note: Couldn’t find this back, and the index lists none of those three names.)
3. Says 1948 was LBJ’s first Senate run, when it was actually his second.
4. In light of the last item in the main part of the review, a few pages about Valero's history under that name as a mission might have been nice. (Side note: I've been to other missions of the San Antonio Missions unit of the National Park Service, and growing up in the Four Corners, am familiar with broader issues of Spanish Catholicism and American Indians.)
And, yet, the cornerstone of Texas exceptionalism, tackled in this book.
An entertaining yet serious romp through the history of Alamo history. (Well, to be precise, the history of 1836 and post-1836 history.)
The trio of authors (Note: Tomlinson is an online friend and journalism peer, via his "Tomlinson Hill" book) provide a history of that history, or a history of the legend-making, in pamphlets, books, and in architectural botches (like the "hump" that is not original and comes from the US Army after the Mexican War), and of how this battle eventually was publicly enjoined by Texas Hispanics, Hispanics elsewhere, revisionist Anglos doing good history and more.
Then, especially with the rise of the Tea Party, and the Abbott-Patrick duo heading Texas government, came the backlash.
Most of the modern stuff was not new to me, by any means. And, what actually likely happened at the battle was not new, for the most part, due to having read Philip Tucker Thomas' historically informative but dreck-as-writing book.
That said, because his book is a couple of decades old, I hadn't heard about Travis' alleged attempt at surrendering. It doesn't surprise me, and yes, I assume it's true. And, of course, further undercuts his legend.
A few other things, related to the battle or to San Jacinto, the authors note:
No Yellow Rose (which I knew) but Santa Anna still blew it with no pickets and scouts
Twin Sisters were manned by Fort Jesup “deserters,” and that a few of them were among Alamo dead. New to me.
The irony of Santa Anna trying to stop illegal immigration from the US, which IS exactly what he was doing!
And, THERE is where things turned messy. Austin (and a few Tejanos like Seguin) were trying to keep slavery legal in Mexican Texas. Meanwhile, slaveholders were trying to push across the border. After earlier hesitation to do so, for fears of having slaves confiscated, it appears that in the last year or two before the war, newer Texians said, "dammit, we're coming anyway."
While the battle over the Alamo has long focused on kneecapping the Tejanos who fought for "the cause," the slavery issue has worked its way more and more to the forefront.
And, also, the American Indians buried on the mission grounds, who died as peons there. I knew a bit about this issue, but not a lot.
One or two issues and errors, not huge, and not costing a star, should be noted:
1. Doesn’t note Polk provoking Mexican War and disputes over Texas boundary. This ties with Texas not having enough population to be a Mexican state itself, being joined with Coahuila, and Texas' boundary traditionally having been considered the Nueces, not the Rio Grande.
2. Has an analogy-joke about Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain trying to get on the Titanic. Too bad that wouldn’t work, as Twain was dead two years. (Note: Couldn’t find this back, and the index lists none of those three names.)
3. Says 1948 was LBJ’s first Senate run, when it was actually his second.
4. In light of the last item in the main part of the review, a few pages about Valero's history under that name as a mission might have been nice. (Side note: I've been to other missions of the San Antonio Missions unit of the National Park Service, and growing up in the Four Corners, am familiar with broader issues of Spanish Catholicism and American Indians.)