“Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review
"Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal
“Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle
Three
noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo,
dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and
explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a
head.
Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas
was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite
deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the
Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down
in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the
battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of
events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to
fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins
for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the
contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside
the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the
conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo
provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the
backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the
sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for
some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating
whiteness.
In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists
have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a
more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we
are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning
has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent,
as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past.
It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines
the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.
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