Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution
- ISBN-10
- 0195184084
- ISBN-13
- 9780195184082
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 201
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010-04-10
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- James E. Crisp
Description
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 often obscured by both racism and "political correctness," as history has been hijacked by combatants in the culture wars of the past two centuries. Beginning with a very personal prologue recalling both the pride and the prejudices that he encountered in the Texas of his youth, Crisp traces his path to the discovery of documents distorted, censored, and ignored--documents which reveal long-silenced voices from the Texan past. In each of four chapters focusing on specific documentary "finds," Crisp 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 very voices from the past that we most need to hear today. Here then is an engaging first-person account of historical detective work, illuminating the methods of the serious historian--and the motives of those who prefer glorious myth to unflattering truth.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2004-12-01
- 228 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State
By Randolph B. CampbellCampbell presents the epic tales of Texas history in a new light, offering revisionist history in the best sense--broadening and deepening the traditional story, without ignoring the heroes of the past. The scope of the book is impressive.
-
Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow
By Thad Sitton, James H. ConradFreedmen land accumulators also often accumulated many children by a succession of wives, as in the case of W. C. Williams's father, Emanuel Williams at Smith Grove, Houston County. W. C. was the sixteenth of Emanuel's seventeen ...
-
How Did Davy Die? And Why Do We Care So Much?: Commemorative Edition
By James E. Crisp, Dan Kilgore"Just over thirty years ago, Dan Kilgore ignited a controversy with his presidential address to the Texas State Historical Association and its subsequent publication in book form, How Did Davy...
-
Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend
By Ron J. Jackson, Lee Spencer White"Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend" provides not only a recovered biography of an individual lost to history, but also offers a fresh vantage point from which to view the events of the Texas Revolution"--
-
The History of Texas
The History of Texas is fully revised and updated in this fifth edition to reflect the latest scholarship in its coverage of Texas history from the pre-Columbian era to the present.
-
Sam Houston and the American Southwest
By Randolph B. CampbellIn this biography, Randolph B. Campbell explores the life of Sam Houston and his important role in the development of the Southwest. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each of the titles...
-
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth
By Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, Jason StanfordForget 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 ...
-
Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR
By Sean P. CunninghamLetter from Maury Maverick to Thomas G. Corcoran, June 18, 1936; telegram from Harold Ickes to Maury Maverick, June 29, 1936; letter from Maury Maverick to Harold Ickes, June 30, 1936, box 2L48, MMC, DBCAH. 47.
-
Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History
By Richard ShenkmanThe truth and nothing but the truth—Richard Shenkman sheds light on America's most believed legends. The story of Columbus discovering the world was round was invented by Washington Irving. The pilgrims never lived in log cabins.
-
Texian Macabre: The Melancholy Tale of a Hanging in Early Houston
By Stephen L. HardinMandred Wood may have caught a glint off the Bowie knife that sank into his belly--but probably not. On the afternoon of November 11, 1837, he had exchanged "harsh epithets"...