History Happy Hour

Our guest is Bryan Burrough, one of the co-authors of Forget the Alamo. Here are some other titles to look at:

The Blood of Heroes: The 13-day struggle for the Alamo and the sacrifice that forged a nation, James Donovon – A solid history of the Battle of the Alamo that used a good deal of previously unseen primary source material.

Exodus From the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth, Phillip Thomas Tucker – A very controversial retelling of the final stages of the Battle of the Alamo that questions many previous assumptions about how many of the heroes of the Alamo ended their battle. Sometimes the language is a bit dense, and you may not agree with Tucker, but you are guaranteed to be provoked by what he says.

Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and the Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, James Crisp – A wonderful analytical look at some of the myths and stories of the Texas war of Independence. Crisp does some first-rate historical research and while some of the paths he goes down are controversial, he is not as inflammatory as Tucker.

América: The Epic Story of Spanish North America 1493-1898, Robert Goodwin – An important book that looks at Spain’s four-centuries of involvement in North America. Even though Spain has a longer history in North America than either Great Britain or France, its contributions to America’s story is too often discounted or overlooked.