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Sleuthing The Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution (New Narratives in American History)
Sleuthing The Alamo Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution - New Narratives in American History Author:James E. Crisp, James Crisp In Sleuthing the Alamo, historian James E. Crisp draws back the curtain on years of mythmaking to reveal some surprising truths about the Texas Revolution---truths that are often obscured by both racism and political correctness. This engaging first-person account of historical detective work illuminates the methods of the serio... more »us historian who searches for the more complex truths behind the glorious myths. Beginning with a personal prologue recalling both the pride and the prejudices he encountered in the Texas of his youth, Crisp illustrates how he discovered documents that have been distorted, censored, and ignored.
In four chapters focusing on specific documentary "finds," he uncovers the clues that led to these archival discoveries. Along the way, the cast of characters expands to include: a prominent historian who tried to walk away from his first book; an unlikely teenaged "speechwriter" for General Sam Houston; three eyewitnesses to the death of Davy Crockett at the Alamo; a desperate inmate of Mexico City's Inquisition Prison, whose scribbled memoir of the war in Texas is now listed in the Guiness Book of World Records; and the stealthy slasher of the most famous historical painting in Texas.
In his afterword, Crisp explores the evidence behind the mythic "Yellow Rose of Texas" and examines some of the powerful forces at work in silencing the voices from the past that we most need to hear today. An indispensable resource for anyone interested in the Alamo or historical detective work, Sleuthing the Alamo is also ideal for undergraduate courses in historical methodology, southwestern borderlands, the American West, Texas history, American expansion, Mexican-American history, race relations, and Southern history.« less
Sally W. reviewed Sleuthing The Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution (New Narratives in American History) on + 141 more book reviews
Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed Sleuthing The Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution (New Narratives in American History) on + 2842 more book reviews
This is a fascinating book about the history of the Alamo, and how it was created. If that subject interests you, then you should read the book. However, it is also a great book about how history is made, re-made, re-made again and---if we're lucky---remade back to what it was in the beginning. As such, anyone interested in history should read this book.
For example, and this isn't covered in the book, there are many Civil War histories books coming out today, and over the last decade or two, which are called "revisionist histories." The fact is, these are not revisionist histories, but real histories. Their authors have access to far more data that writers of Civil War histories written in the past and are not encumbered by the distortions of legends or self-serving authors (of memoirs and autobiographies) that so influenced Civil War histories over generations.
This is actually a short book of 198 pages, and it's height is about the size of a paperback. While I've read much about the Alamo, I still learned new information. And that alone made the book valuable to me.
Here is just one interesting tidbit from the book. Davy Crockett occupies a major role in the fight at the Alamo, but he had only been in Texas for four months. Yet nine of the eleven defenders of the Alamo who were actually born in Texas were Tejanos, who were later "erased" from most histories of the battle.
Having said all that, I was first enhanced by the Alamo story after watching Fess Parker get killed at the Alamo in the Disney show. And the author refers to it often in this book. Somewhere in my house, I still have my "Davey Crockett coonskin cap," but, if I remember correctly, the coon tail is missing.
