If you attended 7th grade in a Texas middle school, chances are you learned the heroic story of the Texas Revolution. Glorious uprising against an evil, tyrannical Mexican government through armed rebellion has been the tale every Texan child has learned as part of their state-mandated education on the matter. The problem? Well, most of these larger than life characters and legends are just that: legends.The most cherished heroes of the ultimately pointless battle were drunks, conmen, failed politicians, and avowed white supremacists who failed to heed an early warning that Santa Ana's forces were amassing. They were very explicit that they were fighting against Mexico's attempts to end their practice of slavery and land theft, believing that whites alone had the right to own human beings and foreign lands for profit. The authors weave a fascinating narrative of the historical events that happened at the Alamo Mission and the story of how generations of Texans have molded this myth for their own (often racist) purposes. Who should get to tell the story of the Alamo? It is a Native burial site, a historic Spanish mission, the site of famous sit-ins during Jim Crow, and of course the site of the ill-fated battle. Strangely enough, some people have decided that Phil Collins is a good answer to this question.
This book was a wild ride through history that could not feel more relevant with the current political fighting in Texas. Despite the title, the authors argue that instead of forgetting the Alamo altogether, we should take another look at it without the rose-tinted glasses of American mythos and use it as a symbol of a shared history instead of racist division.
Publisher's description:
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 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, 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.
Publisher's description:
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 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, 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.