Lone Star Rising: The Battle Of The Alamo

“There seemed to be something inevitable about Texas and revolution.” (Davis, 2004, 5). Images of the Texas War of Independence has been engraved into our minds and become a part of our memorable folklore. Stories like the victorious Sam Houston at San Jacinto, Santa Anna giving Texas its freedom, William Travis and his message “Victory or Death”, Crockett and Bowie’s legendary reputations and their bravery at the Alamo. These scenes are what we as Americans picture the Texas Republic to have been like and how we as Texans perceive ourselves today. “Everything in Texas came from somewhere else” (Davis, 2004, 1). William C. Davis theorizes that even though the battle of the Alamo is a fascinating story, it is but just one episode in a

Davis first begins with a firm investigation of the international events and politics leading up to the 1836 revolutionary war. The book reminds us how Spain was greatly weakened by the Napoleonic wars, the revolutions that produced the United States of America, how New Spain was in rebellion since 1811 and was ruined by its revolutionary war. The great historical figures are also covered, with both their positive and negative traits, such as Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and William Travis. Davy Crockett is not covered too much due to the fact that he did not have a lot to do with Texas Independence, but rather just the fight at the Alamo. The book also talks about the roles that the Tejanos, Anglo-Texans and non-Texan Mexicans played. He also shows how the three different societies fought for and constructed the groundwork for the current Lone Star State by connecting the relations and tensions of the three cultures and political entities between Mexico, Texas and the increasingly influential United States. All in all, Davis’s book accounts for all the minor and key circumstances that directed the path of Texas’s current history as well as the United States

I find that one of the major strengths of this piece of work tends to be how William C. Davis was very successful on illustrating the three different cultures who fought over the land and the idea of what Texas could and would become as well as how America eventually prevailed and Texas became a part of the United States. I also very much enjoyed the last paragraph of the book. Not knowing how the Texas republic chose its flag, and that despite later official pattern changes, the Lone Star still remains to this day. Another strength I sensed, is that Davis’s book coincides with Randolph B. Campbell’s history book, Gone to Texas, A History of the Lone Star State. I feel that Davis’s book adds a lot more background information on key characters and documents, as well as emphasizing on the revolutionary era of